Space as a Commons: The Forgotten Project

By PhD Student François Rulier

Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès

► January 16 th • 16:30 (CET)

Sustainable space faces many challenges: space debris, congested orbits, lack of available frequencies, terrestrial pollution... New technologies, cooperation and soft laws are proposed as solutions.

Space exploration was first considered a common in the 1950s and 1960s, requiring an international regime. But the debates of the 1970s and the failure of the Moon agreement (1979) put an end to this project. This failure may be at the root of most of today's problems, as space became free to be explored and used, without an international regime. The result is a situation akin to the tragedy of the commons (Hardins 1968), which calls into question the possibility of sustainable space exploration.

Using the analysis provided by history and legal history and focusing on the issue of space as a commons, this presentation aims to provide another perspective on these issues.

Please register for the lecture here

For any enquiry contact: universeh@univ-tlse2.fr