A regional approach to maintain the long-term sustainability of outer space activities : the Asia-Pacific space cooperation organization as a case study

Abstract

After a doctrinal research on relevant legal documents and literature, and a comparison between the concepts of long-term sustainability of outer space activities (LTSOSA) and sustainable development, a conclusion is reached that the LTSOSA is a legal concept that derived from the concept of sustainable development, and comprises five legal elements, including the principles of intergenerational equity, sustainable use, intragenerational equity, integration and peaceful purposes. In this regard, the LTSOSA to some extent has been already reflected in international environmental law and international space law. The evolution of living beings in the universe indicates that humans are just a tiny component in the evolution of the universe in both space and time who might possibly be replaced by other organisms, and disappear in the future as life in the universe continues to evolve. Moreover, humans and non-humans share the same origin, which means that the close relationship warrants non-human entities to have a similar moral standing as human beings. In this regard, intrinsic value should not only be ascribed to human beings, but also to non-human living and non-living entities, and thus they are all entitled to the inherent group right to exist (non-living entities) or survive (living entities). The environmental protection is not only to ensure the survival of future generations of human beings and no-human living entities, but also the existence of non-living entities as a group in the universe. Nine principles have been derived for a framework for environmental ethics in outer space, which include the principles of intragenerational and intergenerational equities, sustainability, integration, peaceful purposes, common benefit, precaution, disproportionality and proportionality, which could be the criteria for differentiating between positive and negative space activities when interacting with the space environment, and can be used to guide the space policy and law making and space activities of APSCO and its member states to achieve the LTSOSA. This research is aimed at addressing the legal issues associated with the LTSOSA from the regional perspective, more specifically from the perspective of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), as a complementary to the global approach. The focal point of the argument in this thesis is that the regional cooperation should not only be the complementary to the global cooperation in addressing the LTSOSA issues, but its role in addressing these issues should be also attached importance to by the international space community, because the role of the UNCOPUOS in addressing the LTSOSA issues has been limited by not only the large-n problem but also the political conflicts between some advanced spacefaring countries. This article therefore argues that to enhance the LTSOSA, APSCO as a regional intergovernmental cooperation organization, should embrace an LTSOSA regime because of its own interests, the need to fulfil its international obligations that have been imposed by international environmental law and international space law, and the need for regional efforts, which can complement both national and international efforts, to enhance the LTSOSA. The legal mechanism addressing the LTSOSA from the regional perspective developed in this thesis primarily covers the regimes addressing the safety of space operation which is threatened by space debris, space weather, radio frequency interference (RFI) and space traffic congestion, the environmental protection of outer space involving the mitigation and active removal of space debris and nuclear radiation arising out of the use of space nuclear power sources (NPSs), and the capacity building among the member states of the regional space cooperation organization. Finally, it is concluded that APSCO should establish internal legal regulations that address issues related to the LTSOSA, at least those that take into consideration these abovementioned regimes.