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Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
31–40 of 69 posts
Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
#32Boom, how many people are in space?
Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
#33Let's send a copy of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to members of legislative bodies contemplating space legislation ;-)
Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
#34Boom, how many people are in space?
Only about five people. But there's also an economy almost unrelated to those people that brings in $330,000,000,000 a year via satellites of various sorts. And if more of the internet starts getting routed through LEO that number is likely to go up a lot.
Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
#35Boom, how many people are in space?
Only about five people. But there's also an economy almost unrelated to those people that brings in $330,000,000,000 a year via satellites of various sorts. And if more of the internet starts getting routed through LEO that number is likely to go up a lot.
Satellites and rockets have a lot of regulation. SpaceX for example needed FCC approval before launching test satellites for it’s internet project.
Satellites seem largely unregulated because they impact such a small number of things. It’s not not like the FDA is relevant when it’s all photons being sent back and forth.
Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
So this sounds great in theory, but there are a number of ways that I can think of where it falls short. Tragedy of the commons issues are ones that often largely too late to easily solve by the time enough public pressure has built up to force legislative oversight. Social injustice issues are the same. That being said, I agree that overzealous legislators making pot shots at potential issues is not a good solution…
Laws aren't so easy to sunset even if they have sunset clauses. Whoever benefits from the legislative mistakes will grow to be more powerful than whoever is being pinched by them, and then they'll lobby like nothing else to keep the laws the same. One example would be H&R block, which was created by a complex tax code and works very hard to keep it that way. As for the tragedy of the commons, if your mining operation…
> As for the tragedy of the commons, if your mining operation negatively impacts mine by messing up a shared resource, I can sue you right away. The lack of a legal framework doesn't mean that everything is legal, at least under US tradition; it means that the civil courts decide.
This is only true though for direct damages that ideally are measurable in a monetary value. Are there cases where it helped keeping goods in the commons. I for one would love to sue everyone who fishes in the ocean because I'd rather watch the fish and sleep well at night knowing the ocean isn't being ruined. Simpler and less controversial example would be pollution of the air we are all breathing.
Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
#37Boom, how many people are in space?
Only about five people. But there's also an economy almost unrelated to those people that brings in $330,000,000,000 a year via satellites of various sorts. And if more of the internet starts getting routed through LEO that number is likely to go up a lot.
Is that an actual statistic on the space economy? Do you have a source?
Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
#38I can’t read the article due to a paywall, but don’t laws need an ability for someone to enforce them (police, military, etc.)
Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only about five people. But there's also an economy almost unrelated to those people that brings in $330,000,000,000 a year via satellites of various sorts. And if more of the internet starts getting routed through LEO that number is likely to go up a lot.
Is that an actual statistic on the space economy? Do you have a source?
I've actually seen larger numbers, but that's probably ballpark
Launch is the part of the space industry that gets the most consistent PR, but it's a relatively small piece of the pie. A rocket launch may cost $50-300 million, but the payload on that rocket may have cost billions to design and build.
One source for $385 billion in 2017: https://www.uschamber.com/series/above-the-fold/the-space-ec...
Source for $330-350 billion: https://spacenews.com/a-trillion-dollar-space-industry-will-...
Re: Space law is inadequate for the boom in human activity there
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
So this sounds great in theory, but there are a number of ways that I can think of where it falls short. Tragedy of the commons issues are ones that often largely too late to easily solve by the time enough public pressure has built up to force legislative oversight. Social injustice issues are the same. That being said, I agree that overzealous legislators making pot shots at potential issues is not a good solution…
Laws aren't so easy to sunset even if they have sunset clauses. Whoever benefits from the legislative mistakes will grow to be more powerful than whoever is being pinched by them, and then they'll lobby like nothing else to keep the laws the same. One example would be H&R block, which was created by a complex tax code and works very hard to keep it that way. As for the tragedy of the commons, if your mining operation…
Who do i sue over global warming?