Tag: Outer Space Treaty of 1967

To Quarantine the Moon and Mars

March 7, 2021                                    (rtd.rt.com)

• In July 1964, representatives from several institutions including NASA held a conference to discuss the topic of preventing ‘back contamination’ – bringing contaminants from extraterrestrial bodies back to Earth. They feared that such contamination of the Earth could multiply and lead to unpredictable consequences, up to and including the extinction of our civilization. The attendees at the ‘Conference on Potential Hazards of Back Contamination from the Planets’ concluded there was no way to protect a spacecraft returning from the Moon from any possible extraterrestrial life forms. The best solution to prevent a disease from spreading among people would be isolation until a vaccine could be produced.

• In July 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin returned to their Apollo 11 lunar module after walking on the Moon and took off their helmets, they could smell the acrid stench of Moon dust on their suits. They brushed it off as best they could, but it was impossible to get rid of it all. If there were traces of microorganisms in it, astronauts would inevitably become infected. When their space module touched down in the ocean, the first thing that the retrieval team did was to treat the module door with disinfectant.

• Upon reaching the aircraft carrier, the Apollo 11 crew changed into biological protection suits, traveled in an isolated quarantine van aboard the aircraft carrier, then through special tunnels from the aircraft carrier to land and then onward to a special laboratory. The three astronauts along with six other technicians who were exposed to a film cassette that had fallen on the lunar surface, and any lunar rock samples, objects and equipment that the astronauts had handled on the Moon, were isolated and quarantined for three weeks while scientists examined how the people and objects exposed to the Moon’s surface now interacted with terrestrial plants, animals and living tissue.

• In June 2020, NASA unveiled its new policies regarding bio-protection during manned or robotic flights to the Moon or Mars and back to Earth. The latest NASA guide looked at preventing ‘back contamination’ of moon microbes from invading Earth but also ‘forward contamination’ to protect other celestial bodies from Earth/human contamination. Now that the world is preparing for Mars missions, the planet where life forms are more likely to be found than on the Moon, planet protection policies have become a widely discussed issue.

• There is currently a debate whether the responsibilities and liabilities imposed under the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and signed by world governments including the US also pertain to private commercial space flights. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk claims the treaty does not apply to the private sector, and that the planet Mars is free from “Earth-based government… authority or sovereignty over Martian activities”.

• With the probability of humans landing on Mars, scientists are proposing that a Martian “exploration zone” be established on the planet’s surface where visiting humans can isolate themselves for a period to prevent their contaminating Mars. It has now been demonstrated that people and objects exposed to the Moon’s surface do not pose any risk of ‘back contamination’ on Earth. But there is a concern whether Moon tourists would faithfully follow NASA recommendations regarding the protection of other moons and planets from ‘forward contamination’ of Earth-born bio-contamination.

• The CEO of fashion retailer Zozo, Yusaku Maezawa, plans to take more than a dozen civilians to the Moon under the ‘dearMoon project’. Foreseeing the rise of such space tourism, last summer (2020) NASA released updated biosafety guidance for such civilian space missions. The risk of catching an ‘alien plague’ on the Moon, or the contamination of other celestial bodies with Earth bacterias is no joke to space experts.

 

Apollo 11 astronauts in the quarantine module

With space tourism on the rise, the risk of space contamination may undermine the

       NASA Mobile Quarantine Facility

endeavour. The CEO of fashion retailer Zozo, Yusaku Maezawa, who started a project to launch the first civilian flight to the moon in 2023, has recently announced he’ll pay for five randomly chosen candidates as well. But it is still unclear whether the dearMoon project offers the required biosafety level while taking more than a dozen civilians to the moon. Even though no-one has been infected, the risk of catching an ‘alien plague’ on the moon is not a joke to space experts. In the summer of 2020, NASA released updated guidance for civilian missions, foreseeing the rise of space tourism. The advice added new rules concerning contamination of other celestial bodies with Earth bacterias.

   Nixon greeting the Apollo astronauts

Throughout the 70s, NASA scientists were testing space systems for biosafety during

       Yusaku Maezawa and Elon Musk

the Apollo programme. After years of research, they only concluded that biosafety is impossible in space. NASA developed a guide for preventing bio-emergencies half a century ago. However, until now, social isolation and containment remain the most reliable ways of avoiding space viruses and bacterias from invading Earth.

Interplanetary contamination

Following the first flight into space, the United States set a goal to send a manned mission to the moon earlier than the USSR. But a closer look into the prospects of the mission led to safety concerns over the biological threat. The US spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer’s dollars researching whether it’s true. Scientists from NASA were seriously considering the worst outcome of what they named ‘back contamination’.

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The Ripple Effects of a Military Space Skirmish

Article by Ramin Skibba and Undark                                July 12, 2020                              (theatlantic.com)

• On April 22, with the successful launch of a military reconnaissance satellite, Iran joined a growing list of nations having weapons and military systems in orbit. In April, Russia tested a missile program designed to destroy satellites, and in March 2019, India launched an anti-satellite weapon. Many more countries now have space programs, including Iran, North Korea, France, Japan, and Israel.

• Two think-tanks, e.g.: the Secure World Foundation in Broomfield, Colorado, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., both released reports this year (see SWF report here; see CSIS report here) pointing to an increase in countries deploying satellite-destroying weaponry and disruptive technologies that could put all peaceful activities in space at risk. Many of these technologies could ratchet up an arms race or spark an actual skirmish in space.

• “What worries us in the international community is that there aren’t necessarily any guardrails for how people are going to start interfering with others’ space systems,” said Daniel Porras, a space security fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva.

• Thousands of satellites already circle low-Earth orbit (below an altitude of 1,200 miles) to provide key services such as internet access, GPS signals, long-distance communications, and weather information. More than half of those satellites are from the U.S., and most of the rest are from China and Russia. Any missile that smashes into a satellite would disperse thousands of bits of debris. “If you create debris, it might just as well come back and hit one of your own satellites,” says David Burbach, a national security affairs expert at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. “So I think we’re pretty unlikely to see countries actually use those capabilities.”

• When China conducted an anti-satellite missile test in 2007, it created a massive cloud of space junk that drew international condemnation. India’s engineers tried to limit debris from their recent test by conducting it at a low altitude, so that Earth’s gravity would pull the pieces down and they would burn up on descent. But some pieces were flung up to the International Space Station’s orbit. There were no collisions; as of February, only 15 trackable pieces of debris remained in orbit.

• A number of countries are developing new military technologies for space. France is working on laser beams that could dazzle another country’s satellite, preventing it from taking pictures of classified targets. North Korea is studying how to jam radio frequency signals sent to or from a satellite. And Iran is devising cyberattacks that could interfere with satellite systems. Meanwhile, the big three space heavyweights – the U.S., Russia, and China – are already capable of all three approaches, according to the SWF report.

• The big three have also begun to develop satellites that can be used as surveillance devices or weapons. A satellite could maneuver within miles of a rival’s classified satellite, snap photos of equipment and transmit the pictures down to Earth. Or the satellite could sidle up to another and spray its counterpart’s lenses or cover its solar panels, cutting off power and rendering it useless. Russia may be ahead with this technology. Last fall, Space Force General John “Jay” Raymond accused Russia of deploying a satellite near a U.S. spy satellite, which he called a “potentially threatening behavior.”

• The SWF report notes that an incident or misunderstanding could escalate tensions if it’s perceived as an attack. With the new Space Force, the U.S. Defense Department seeks to “strengthen deterrence” and improve capabilities to “defend our vital assets in space,” says Space Force spokesperson Christina Hoggatt. The U.S. military will focus on making satellites more resilient to attack, however, rather than developing offensive weapons, said Hoggatt.

• Tense regional relationships could be particularly unpredictable. For example, if North Korean leaders found themselves in a standoff with South Korea and the U.S., they might launch and detonate a nuclear weapon in space where the radiation would disable most satellites. The U.N. and other international groups – including SWF and the Outer Space Institute, a global research organization based in British Columbia – are working to avoid such scenarios.

• Existing international laws offer little guidance. While the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 prohibit weapons of mass destruction in space, they don’t explicitly limit other kinds of space weapons, tests, or military space forces. So until non-interference rules involving space weaponry are hammered out, unexpected satellite tests will inevitably fuel speculation and paranoia.

 

On April 22, after several failed attempts, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a successful launch of what it described as a military reconnaissance satellite. That satellite joined a growing list of weapons and military systems in orbit, including those from Russia (which in April tested a missile program designed to destroy satellites) and India (which launched an anti-satellite weapon in March 2019).

Experts like Brian Weeden, director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation (SWF), a nonpartisan think tank based in Broomfield, Colorado, worry that these developments—all confirmed by the newly rebranded United States Space Force—threaten to lift earthly conflicts to new heights and put all space activities, peaceful and military alike, at risk. Researchers at SWF and at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., both released reports this year on the rapidly evolving state of affairs. The reports suggest that the biggest players in space have upgraded their military abilities, including satellite-destroying weapons and technologies that disrupt spacecraft, by, for instance, blocking data collection or transmission.

Many of these technologies, if deployed, could ratchet up an arms race and even spark a skirmish in space, the SWF and CSIS researchers caution. Blowing up a single satellite scatters debris throughout the atmosphere, said Weeden, co-editor of the SWF report. Such an explosion could hurl projectiles in the paths of other spacecraft and threaten the accessibility of space for everyone.

“Those are absolutely the two best reports to be looking at to get a sense of what’s going on in the space community,” said David Burbach, a national security affairs expert at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, who was not involved in the new research.

Today, Burbach added, the world is very different compared with the Cold War era, when access to space was essentially limited to the United States and the Soviet Union. Many more countries now have space programs, including India, Iran, North Korea, France, Japan, and Israel.

Despite this expansion—and the array of new space weapons—relevant policies and regulatory bodies have remained stagnant. “What worries us in the international community is that there aren’t necessarily any guardrails for how people are going to start interfering with others’ space systems,” said Daniel Porras, a space security fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva. “There are no rules of engagement.”

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NASA Sets Out Its Red Lines for 2024 Moon Landing

Article by John Varge                                May 16, 2020                             (express.co.uk)

• The ‘Artemis Program’ is NASA’s project – supported by other international space programs and private companies – to establish a permanent human settlement on the Moon by 2028, beginning by landing two astronauts near the lunar south pole in 2024. On May 15th, NASA officials revealed the core values underpinning its mission in a document called the Artemis Accords (see here). NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted: “Today I’m honored to announce the #Artemis Accords agreements — establishing a shared vision and set of principles for all international partners that join in humanity’s return to the Moon. We go, together.”

• NASA said its over-riding vision was to “create a safe and transparent environment which facilitates exploration, science and commercial activities for all of humanity to enjoy.” This vision is in accordance with the “peaceful purposes only” principles enshrined in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the founding document of international space law, which has been ratified by more than 100 countries, including the US.

• The Accords seek to ensure no “harmful interference” by one nation in the off-Earth affairs of another, and to publicly disclose their exploration plans and policies as well as sharing their scientific data. Artemis partners pledge to protect historic sites and artefacts on the Moon and other cosmic locales, as well as to help minimize space-junk.

• Private Moon landers will begin to ferry NASA science and technology experiments to the lunar surface next year. The Accords also cover the space mining of resources on the Moon, Mars and asteroids conducted under the auspices of the Outer Space Treaty. Moon landers will be built by commercial companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX. SpaceX is currently developing its huge ‘Starship’ vehicle to help colonize Mars. Starship will launch atop a huge rocket called ‘Super Heavy’, but will land on, and launch off of, the Moon and Mars on its own. Other companies awarded contracts, worth a total of $967 million for 10 months of work, are Blue Origin and Dynetics.

• NASA’s Jim Bridenstine said, “This is the first time since the Apollo era that NASA has direct funding for a human landing system, and now we have companies on contract to do the work for the Artemis program.” “America is moving forward with the final step needed to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024,” including the first woman set foot on the lunar surface.

 

The US Space Agency has always recognised that international cooperation will be vital if its Artemis programme is to succeed. Artemis is the ambitious project to land two astronauts near the lunar south pole in 2024, as a precursor to establishing a permanent human lunar settlement by 2028. On Friday, NASA officials revealed the core values underpinning its mission in a document called the Artemis Accords, which stress the peaceful nature of its exploration.

In a tweet, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote: “It’s a new dawn for space exploration!

NASA’s Jim Bridenstine and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, doing his famous ‘Zoolander’ impression

“Today I’m honored to announce the #Artemis Accords agreements — establishing a shared vision and set of principles for all international partners that join in humanity’s return to the Moon.

“We go, together.”

In accordance with principles enshrined in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, NASA said its over-riding vision was to “create a safe and transparent environment which facilitates exploration, science and commercial activities for all of humanity to enjoy.”

The outer Space Treaty (OST) is the founding document of international space law.

It has been ratified by more than 100 countries, including the United States and other leading space powers.

The OTS stipulates that space exploration should be carried out for peaceful purposes only.

Artemis partners will also be required to be completely transparent about their activities, which means publicly disclosing their exploration plans and policies as well as sharing their scientific data.

The Accords also cover space mining, which NASA sees as key to humanity’s exploration efforts over the long haul.

NASA officials said the ability to extract and use resources on the moon, Mars and even asteroids would be critical “to support safe and sustainable space exploration and development”.

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