Protecting the Last Frontier: Space Mining and Environmental Sustainability

Protecting the Last Frontier is a book seeking to anticipate the inevitable legal framework that will need to be put in place, particularly considering the necessity to create legal standards to support the environmental sustainability of space resource activities. Space resource activities—better known as “space mining”—are the next step in humankind’s utilization of outer space. Previous space activities have belatedly caused us to realize that fragile environments do not end with Earth’s atmosphere. Today, the most striking problem is the agglomeration and increasing generation of nonfunctional space objects (space debris) in orbit. Tomorrow, with the development of new space activities, unanticipated environmental problems will arise beyond Earth orbit.

What’s in this book:

To that end, the book assesses the efficiency of existing space law in addressing environmental threats and reflects on the potential contribution international environmental law can offer. The array of applicable mechanisms considered includes a detailed examination of the following:

• what kind of environmental problems may arise from space resource activities
• which norms of international law are relevant in addressing these threats within the framework of sustainability
• the United Nations Space Treaties
• domestic space legislations that directly address space resource activities or that are particularly significant from an environmental perspective, and
• soft law, especially instruments and guidelines from international organizations acting in the space sector, such as the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR)

How this will help you:

Contrary to a common idea, space resources—such as the ones found in situ on celestial bodies—are limited and must be managed rationally. It is indubitable that activities beyond Earth orbit will impact the surrounding environment, raising several potential issues beyond the question of debris, such as contamination and the risk of overexploitation. Ultimately, this book drafts the roadmap for the environmentally sustainable exploitation of space resources from a legal standpoint and proposes a sustainability framework articulated around a set of standards. Concerned lawyers and policymakers globally will significantly appreciate the book’s set of objective standards and concrete measures. This pragmatic approach, which includes the comprehensive review of instruments governing space activities, will lead them to navigate with assurance the different normative levels of legal action for astro-environmentalism.