Already, several businesses including Virgin Galactic are working to send paying customers into space, while others like Blue and SpaceX Origin are attempting to massively decrease the price of space travel by assembling reusable rockets.
And the United Nations needs to oversee this emerging industry. This might include matters like ordering when and where launches are permitted, legalities covering flying over other nations, preventing an accumulation of space debris, etc.
If we don’t find a means to meaningfully and pragmatically handle the significant changes that aerospace innovators are creating, national conditions won’t be harmonized, technology is going to be over- or under-controlled, and you will have more functional and commercial uncertainties,” Dr. Aliu described in a statement. “This is just what must be prevented.”
Broadly embraced regulations are expected, the ICAO has indicated, to ensure protection and safety in space travel, instead of letting states determine their own patchwork regulation.
Within the near future, space will not be the sole realm of professionally skilled astronauts or the extremely rich,” they wrote. “The dearth of legal clarity signifies a significant challenge and should be dealt with when you possibly can, to provide for proper standards and further support (not deter) such actions.”
The ICAO noticed the increasing variety of developments as well as the growing amount of businesses in the area as a basis for taking actions now. Included in these are strategies to create space ports all over the world, including in Houston, Texas as well as in the U.K., while private rocket launches are now very much a routine event.
Personally, as an engineer, I’m quite excited to find out the dream and theory of normalized space flight now becoming such a concrete reality,” added Dr. Aliu.
The UN are likely right to support what’s a hugely exciting business. A unified, world-wide set of rules much like the aviation industry could help businesses understand where they stand as improvement continues to be made, and is not a terrible thought.