Issues for the future

Space exploration and development have been stimulated by a complex mixture of motivations, including scientific inquiry, intense competition between national governments and ideologies, and commercial profit. Underlying them has been a vision of the outward movement of humans from Earth, ultimately leading to permanent settlements in space or on other celestial bodies. In reality, however, only 27 people have traveled beyond Earth orbit, all of them Apollo astronauts during the primarily politically inspired race to the Moon. Twenty-four of these astronauts visited the Moon, 12 of them walked on its surface, and additional astronauts are scheduled to do so by 2025 as part of the Artemis space program.

Scientists will continue to seek answers to leading questions about the physical and biological universe through the deployment of increasingly advanced instruments on orbiting satellites and space probes. The principal space-faring countries appear willing to continue their substantial support for space science. The availability of government funding will set the pace of scientific progress.

The various applications of space capability hold the greatest promise for significant change. If other commercial ventures equal or surpass the success of the satellite communications sector, space could become a major centre of business activity. If governments decide to expand the activity in space of their armed forces, space could become another major military theatre—like the land, the sea, and the air on Earth—for waging war and deploying weapons. If observing Earth from space becomes crucial for effective planetary management, an assortment of increasingly varied and specialized observation satellites could be launched. Thus, outer space could become a much busier area of human activity in the 21st century than it was in the 20th century. At some point, it even may become necessary to establish a space traffic-control system analogous to traffic-control systems on Earth. Already, debris from exploding upper rocket stages, dead satellites, accidental collisions of space objects, and at least one test of an antisatellite weapon are threats to the use of the space environment, and governments and private operators are taking steps to avoid creating additional space debris.

The development of space as an arena for multiple government and private activities will pose significant policy and legal challenges. The legal framework for space activities is based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and four subsequent United Nations treaties implementing its provisions. These agreements were negotiated at a time when governments were the principal players in space and commercial space activities were in their infancy. Whether they form an adequate and appropriate framework for current and future space activities requires review. One suggestion is to create a voluntary code of conduct setting out the principles for responsible use of space.

The Outer Space Treaty prohibits the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in outer space and on celestial bodies. Other treaties have limited some military activities in space, but there is no general framework regulating the military uses of space. The wisdom of developing space weapons—or, alternatively, of limiting their development and keeping space a weapons-free environment—is an issue for discussion and debate.

To date, the benefits of space exploration and development have accrued mainly to those countries that have financed space activities. The contributions of space to the economic and social development of large regions of Earth have been limited. The Outer Space Treaty identifies space as “the common heritage of mankind.” How to ensure that the benefits of this common heritage are more equitably distributed will be a continuing challenge.