We Urgently Need a Legal Framework for Space Colonisation
If we don’t invent one, the consequences could be catastrophic. The time to act is now.
By Marko Kovic | Edited by Sam Dresser
The year is 2087. Thanks to a series of serendipitous technological breakthroughs a few decades earlier, the creation of large-scale, self-sustainable human habitats beyond Earth has become feasible. There are already close to half a million people living on Mars, many of them native Martians.
The Mars colony consists of two major habitats: one created and maintained by the United States, the other by China. The habitats started out as scientific missions, and have since expanded into civilian and commercial operations. They are, in effect, foreign territories of the US and of China where people live and work essentially the same way as they do on Earth.
In a controversial recent Martian referendum, the majority of the Martian inhabitants have expressed a wish for political autonomy: they don’t want to be outposts of faraway Earth countries any longer, but instead want to become a united and independent planet. Unsurprisingly, neither the US nor the Chinese governments have recognised the referendum. Whereas the US government is still deliberating on an appropriate course of action, China…
