Asteroid Mining

Economically profitable resource exploitation in space is becoming increasingly feasible as more actors - national,
public and private-are engaging in space exploration. The Outer Space Treaty (OST), which serves as the
basis for the current corpus juris spatialis, declares that no government can claim sovereignty over celestial bodies
or outer space itself. Because this is generally interpreted as denying private ownership, the OST is sometimes
claimed to be an obstacle to commercial venture, particularly resource exploitation. Such claims ignore a wealth
of terrestrial models which promote profitable commercial resource exploitation independent of fee-simple
ownership. To achieve an approach to space exploration and exploitation which balances national, international,
and commercial interests and a need to prevent conflict and militarization of outer space, terrestrial approaches
to managing resource exploitation should be carefully examined for frameworks and mechanisms with potential
to serve as models in further elaborating an international regime for space resource exploitation. A previously
overlooked terrestrial example, the Alaska Permanent Fund, and its unique citizen's dividend, is explored as one
possible model for such a balanced approach that could encourage profit-driven exploration and exploitation of
extra-terrestrial resources, reduce the risk of conflict between actors in outer space and simultaneously accrue
tangible benefits to all of humanity.

New in-space economy fields are emerging. The nascent space industries include human spaceflight, satellite servicing, orbital transfer vehicles, commercial space stations, in-space manufacturing, commercial landers and many others. In-space economy includes cislunar economy and Moon and Mars economies. Factories in Space (www.factoriesinspace.com) is the largest online database of commercial entities in the emerging in-space economy, space resources and microgravity manufacturing fields. The directory was started in 2018 and is growing quickly with 400 entries at this time. First part of the paper will define what new in-space economy is and establish classification for the companies. Literature review will be performed and glossary will be created to define the relatively new terms in a single source. Until the new industry categories are defined and accepted, activities will be named by varying methods, which makes it challenging to determine competitors and estimate market sizes. The count of high-level categories has been limited to the order of 10 for practical purposes. Second part of the paper will present statistical overview of which companies are or aim to be active in the new in-space economy fields. While most of the commercial lander, space resources, habitat and space utilities (energy, oxygen, water, communications) enterprises are focusing on LEO and Moon, many of them will likely add Mars and deep space to their activities once launch opportunities and markets arise. Within the classifications, comparison will be made between capabilities, development status, geographical distribution and funding where available. Goal is to leave a snapshot from 2021 to be able to start discovering trends and next space market booms over the coming decade.

In the future, space commercialization will trigger the quest for space assets. Space investigation will be directed to a shortage of assets as conveying the assets from the earth itself for the advancement of space-based ventures won't be attainable. Receiving the strategy for mining the Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) could be a plausible and practical method for conquering this issue and could upset the stockpile of imperative for human civilization. Spectral analysis and ground-based information propose that NEA can contain water, volatiles and some high-esteem materials worth up to billions of dollars. Studies recommend that few new NEAs will be found later on could build the likelihood that asteroidal mining tasks can rely upon low vitality missions. Thinking about the potential applications, Asteroidal mining can be a spine for future space expedition. This paper presents a complete survey of assets accessible from NEA, innovative and prudent parts of Asteroid Mining. This literature study can be isolated into four sections: i) Exploration (NEA disclosures and assessed populace) ii) Analysis (topographical portrayal of NEA) iii) Extraction (different strategies to concentrate and procedure the assets) iv) Economical viewpoints (financial investigation and its noteworthiness in upcoming days). We have additionally talked about the attainability to direct a space mission in terms of potential orbits and all other technical difficulties are featured.

There are a number of logistical decisions to be made in the design of the architecture of a future asteroid mining industry. This paper discusses how methods used in operations research, graph theory, and combinatorial optimization can be applied to study the various logistical components of an asteroid mining industry. A number of optimization problems are described to model logistical decisions to be made in asteroid target selection, mineral exploration approach, flight itinerary and trajectory design, and the design of a space supply chain network. Solution methods are presented for each of these problems, determining the optimal decisions from a set of candidate approaches. These problems and solution methods can assist in the design of the architecture and operating procedure of a future asteroid mining industry.

It is the eve of outer space development, but few people are aware of this. In the absence of awareness, people cannot prepare for the opportunities that will arise; and so the vast wealth likely to flow to Earth from outer space will cause ever-greater inequality and instability in our already unequal and unstable world.

This book is a call to educators to factor equality and diversity into the process of outer space development by creating a widespread movement to teach outer space development studies to all students, especially those who study social and behavioral sciences. In calling for this, the author is also putting out a call to visionary thinkers to increase public awareness that outer space is already in the process of being developed. Her objective is to provide a pedagogical approach aimed at mending the knowledge gap. If we fail in this objective, we are more likely than ever before to witness ever-widening gaps of social and financial inequality.

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/outer-space-development-international-relations-and-space-law-16

In this article we explore a possible scenario of space colonization and its consequences for planet Earth. We argue that in the short term space colonization will take place, but not in the form often presented in scientific and science fiction literature. Space colonies will be fully automated. There are three main reasons to believe that this is the most plausible scenario: 1) space mining is very profitable; 2) humans cannot survive for long periods of time in outer space limiting the prospects for human space colonization (HSC), and 3) automation is already a leading trend on Earth. Crewed missions will have an ancillary function, while machines or human/machine avatars will ‘inhabit’ other celestial bodies, in order to pursue economic enterprises and progress scientific discovery. We also propose some considerations on the speculative hypothesis, elaborated by a few leading futurists, that the development of machine-based learning Artificial Intelligence would lead to the so-called Singularity. In relation to this scenario, we argue that fully automated space colonization (FASC) could be a solution to prevent unwanted side effects of the Singularity, such as competition for resources between humankind and a hostile Artificial Intelligence.

“Space: The Final Frontier.”  While that phrase has been a call to arms for generations of science fiction fans and space enthusiasts to look up at the night sky in wonder and amazement, it has increasingly become a siren call for private space pioneers. Since man first went to space, humankind has been pushing the boundaries of experimentation, research, and exploration into the cosmos. Even though Earth’s supply of certain rare and precious metals may be reaching depletion, researchers have found that asteroids are likely to contain vast quantities of these resources.  Today, several companies are attempting to tap into this potential wealth of resources for use, both on Earth and in space.  Before these companies can begin mining, however, stronger property laws are needed to ensure the Asteroid Belt of our solar system is not described as the next California Gold Rush.  This Article argues that the international community must be united on the policies and customs surrounding property ownership in space so these mining operations can be performed in a peaceful and safe manner.

Near-Earth asteroids are expected to be rich in mineral resources which, if extracted, could have tremendous benefits in lowering the costs of conducting space exploration missions, and could potentially generate significant monetary returns. Despite this potential, there remain many unanswered questions surrounding asteroid mining: What is the best strategy? Which are the best targets? How much material can be retrieved? How much profit can be generated? This thesis aims to answer these questions, determining the optimal trajectory design, mission architecture, and asteroid targets to maximize the total net present value (NPV) of an asteroid mining operation.
A parametric economic model is formulated to assess the feasibility of numerous mission alternatives over a range of system, mission, and cost parameters. This analysis shows that the optimal strategy uses multiple return-trip missions, with propellant processed from asteroid resources.
New methods are then developed for the combinatorial trajectory optimization of multiple return-trip missions, identifying optimal flight itineraries that maximize NPV, rather than minimizing delta-V. These trajectories account for the distribution of asteroid-derived resources to a propellant depot and customer spacecraft between consecutive trips. A location-routing problem is developed to identify the optimal orbital location of the propellant depot, and the routing of spacecraft throughout the supply chain network to maximize total sellable mass delivered to customers.
These methods are then applied to assess the economic values of over 100 candidate asteroids, with realistic trajectories over multiple return-trip missions. These candidates were filtered from the entire list of 19,880 near-Earth asteroids known at the time of writing, as having either known/assumed C-complex taxonomic classes, low delta-Vs, or orbital elements close to Earth.
The results produced a list of 35 asteroids with positive NPVs. These missions could be achieved with capital costs of around $400M, generating large profits ranging from $198.27M to $1547.7M over 20 years, with positive returns after the first or second trips. These results confirm the economic viability of asteroid mining missions, however it is noted that additional data and understanding of asteroid composition is needed to reduce the large uncertainty in the presence of resources before asteroid mining should commence.

20. yüzyılın sonuna dek güneş sisteminin son sınırı Plüton ve milyonlarca kuyruklu yıldızın bulunduğu bölge olan oort bulutu olarak biliniyordu, Gerard Kuiper 1950 yılında yayımladığı makaleye göre güneş sisteminin ilk oluşum dönemlerinde Kuiper kuşağı adında bir yapı zamanla yok olmuş ve günümüze kadar tamamen temizlenmişti. Ancak 10. Gezegen arayışı ve güneş sisteminin nerede başlayıp nerede bittiği tartışması 1990’lı yıllarda Plüton ve ötesinin tekrar araştırılması ile oort bulutundan daha yakın bir bölgede Plüton benzeri onlarca gökcisminin keşfedilmesi, Kuiper kuşağı denen bölgenin halen var olduğunu kanıtladı. 
Bu bölge Adını Gerard Kuiper adlı bilim adamından aldı. 2000li yıllara geldiğimizde 40’dan fazla irili ufaklı minik gezegenler keşfedildi. Yeni keşfedilen bu gezegenlerin bir kısmı hemen hemen Plüton ile aynı boyutta ve özellikle Eris’in kütle olarak ondan daha büyük olduğu anlaşılınca Plüton ana gezegen olma vasfını kaybetti. Eğer Plüton halen 9. Gezegen olarak kabul ediliyor olsaydı şimdi güneş sisteminde 50’den fazla gezegen ismi  sayıyor olurduk. Cüce gezegen olarak vasıflandırılan bu gök cisimlerinin oluşumları döneminde çeşitli etkenlerle kimi iç güneş sistemindeki yörüngelerinden dış güneş sistemi yörüngelerine taşınmış, kimi ise dış güneş sisteminden iç güneş sistemine göç etmiştir. Gezegen bilimi ile ilgili çalışmalar son zamanlarda sürekli gelişim halinde olduğundan dolayı elde ettiğimiz tecrübeler ve bilgiler de sürekli değişmektedir. Dolayısıyla gezegen sınıflandırması ile ilgili bilgiler de bu doğrultuda tazelenmektedir.

The development of an industry extracting resources from asteroids requires a means of finding and extracting these resources, and also a market willing to bear the costs of those extracted resources. The extraordinarily high costs of space travel indicate that the initial markets for such resources are unlikely to be in precious metals or other such resource needs on Earth, but, instead, for needs in space. An examination of possible markets for asteroid resources reveals that the first material to be extracted profitably is likely to be water, which is common on certain asteroids, and that the first market for that water is likely to be human missions of exploration in deep space. Extraterrestrial water would supplant water brought from Earth, allowing these mission to transport larger quantities of other needed supplies and possibly enabling features (such as radiation shielding) would just not be economically feasible otherwise. Given the very high cost to deliver a crewed mission to cislunar space or a Mars transfer orbit, this supplemental water could potentially be sold for several $ 100 million US per ton, sufficient to provide a profit to commercial asteroid mining missions. The planned crewed missions to cis-lunar space and Mars orbit are thus likely to bootstrap this industry in addition to furthering the human exploration of the solar system.

İn this article we examine asteroid or space mining issue which will be the first step for the space colonization which has been a dream for men. İn this work we explain how asteroids is selected and how mine will be excavated from them. Also we touch the companies work about asteroid mining and which step they are on now. Hovewer we examine what materials are going to be excavated and we give place to specialist of the asteroid mining's subject.

Has technology outrun the international law governing
outer space? This dilemma presents itself as private entities
become capable of space travel and new technology makes
asteroid mining a reality. Although the Outer Space Treaty’s
“non-appropriation” principle prohibits nations from
claiming sovereignty over space bodies, that restriction does
not prevent resource extraction. The non-appropriation
principle, interpreted alongside existing legal regimes,
distinguishes between forbidden appropriation and permissible
extraction. Consequently, the non-appropriation principle is
most accurately viewed as a flexible premise from which the
international community is free to fashion unique laws
governing resource extraction in outer space.

This paper discusses factors concerning the architecture and operating procedure of an asteroid mining industry. The industry is designed to deliver water based propellant from near-Earth asteroids to customers in the geostationary orbit. A range of possible options are discussed for different elements of the architecture and operations of the industry. A transportation model of the industry is developed consisting of mining spacecraft, processing plants, and a transportation spacecraft moving materials between orbits. The model uses water based propellant derived from asteroid water-ice as the primary commodity, provided to customers in geostationary orbit.

Several national governments have recently taken substantial steps toward creating policies that apply to new, path-breaking activities at asteroids in outer space. Near-term activities on asteroids are likely to be various, including mining initiated by private firms and planetary defense activities pursued by public agencies. Current perspectives on making policy toward asteroid activities often presume that the different goals pursued by actors interested in asteroids are mutually supportive and that diverse actors' common focus on asteroids builds momentum for creating an enabling policy environment. In contrast, we argue that the four main categories of asteroid activities envisioned today – scientific research (science), human settlement of other parts of the solar system (settlement), planetary defense (security), and mining (sales) – are best served by policy regimes with distinct features. Different activities require different policy arrangements, which are not straightforwardly compatible. The incompatibilities present policymakers with trade-offs. This paper discusses the four main types of asteroid activities and their related policy needs to highlight these trade-offs and influence debate.

This paper outlines methods that may be used to estimate the energy and time requirements to extract a desired mass of mineral resources from asteroid ore using surface mining techniques. Analytical models of the theoretical spatial and size distribution of ore and mineral resources are generated, and used to estimate the volume fraction of particles within the bulk volume. The ore containing the mineral deposit is to be extracted using open-pit mining. The mass and volume of ore required to be extracted is estimated from volume integrals in spherical coordinates, with constraints placed on the slope of the mine pit. This volume may be used to estimate the total energy and time requirements to extract a desired mass of mineral resources, and the mining rate as a function of the available power.

This paper calculates the ΔV, stay-time and mission duration of trajectories to accessible asteroids, and uses them to compare the various asteroid mining approaches. The paper focuses on Arjuna-type asteroids, a class of near-Earth asteroids with very Earth-like orbits. Arjuna-type asteroids are inaccessible during most of their long synodic periods; however offer many low-ΔV launch opportunities over several years around times of opposition. Optimal launch dates and times of flight for the Earth-Asteroid and Asteroid-Earth trajectories are used to identify several classes of trajectory combinations with 1, 1.5, and 2-year durations. The Net Present Value method is used to develop figures of merit to assess the economic viability of each trajectory combination and mining approach over the duration of accessibility.

Space science has benefitted greatly from war. From Third Reich rocket scientists to the space race made possible by the Cold War, great  progress was made in a relatively short time in the fields of spaceflight and planetary exploration. The competitive environment in which the USA and USSR - the two space hegemons - sought to surpass each other in national excellence is reminiscent of the ancient Greek spirit of agonistic competition. The end of the Cold War and the ensuing draconian funding cuts have slowed scientific and technological progress to a snail's pace in comparison to the golden era of space exploration in the 1960s. Accepting the premise that space science and space exploration is of intrinsic value to humanity, higher levels of funding are needed.  Such funding is unlikely to take place in the current environment of space multipolarity; a more conducive geopolitical environment would be that of competitive bipolarity. The rise of China and their strong interest in a space program has the potential of replicating the agonistic environment of the Cold War and hence increased funding and the advancement of space science.

In this article we explore a possible scenario of space colonization and its consequences for planet Earth. We argue that in the short term space colonization will take place, but not in the form often presented in scientific and science fiction literature. Space colonies will be fully automated. There are three main reasons to believe that this is the most plausible scenario: 1) space mining is very profitable; 2) humans cannot survive for long periods of time in outer space limiting the prospects for human space colonization (HSC), and 3) automation is already a leading trend on Earth. Crewed missions will have an ancillary function, while machines or human/machine avatars will ‘inhabit’ other celestial bodies, in order to pursue economic enterprises and progress scientific discovery. We also propose some considerations on the speculative hypothesis, elaborated by a few leading futurists, that the development of machine-based learning Artificial Intelligence would lead to the so-called Singularity. In relation to this scenario, we argue that fully automated space colonization (FASC) could be a solution to prevent unwanted side effects of the Singularity, such as competition for resources between humankind and a hostile Artificial Intelligence.

Настоящая статья посвящена анализу ситуации, возникшей в международном космическом праве в связи с принятием в ноябре 2015 г. Закона США о конкурентоспособности коммерческих запусков в космос. В работе аналитически обобщены основные экспертные мнения и правовые позиции юристов различных стран, сформированные в ответ на новеллу американских законодателей, с целью оценить возможное влияние этого национального акта на состояние и перспективы модернизации действующей системы международного космического права и ее базовых принципов. Сделан вывод, что в силу своего исторического характера базовые акты международного космического права, принятые в 1960-х – 1980-х гг., не всегда могут дать однозначный ответ на новые вопросы и вызовы, возникающие в связи с масштабными переменами в мире в целом и в глобальной космической деятельности в частности. Косвенно об этом свидетельствует обилие правовых дискуссий, касающихся толкования тех или иных общих принципов с целью их применения в новом историческом контексте. Увеличение технологических возможностей в освоении космоса и рост числа конкурентоспособных участников «космической гонки» ведут к необходимости обновления международного правового регулирования в этой сфере.

This paper was written for the course of Space Sciences and Exploration, during the Master of Space Studies. The paper provides an overview of the threats and opportunities with regard to near-Earth asteroids. From asteroid impacts and planetary defence techniques, to exploration missions and commercial opportunities of asteroid mining.

The Ocean Above Us is an annotated children’s story. The prose poem captures roughly 100 years of future history beginning with the California drought and exploring the series of events that follow in its wake – eventually leading to the creation of the first space elevator. The project is inspired by the confirmation of water ice on the dwarf-planet Ceres – and the potential for that water to aid in human colonization of the solar system. The annotation explores this future history in greater depth, intentionally blurring contemporary and historic thought with future imaginings. While the content of the book is fictional, it is based in historical and contemporary scientific fact and well documented scientific speculation.

Compact Composite Objects (CCOs), nuggets of dense Color-Flavor-Locked Superconducting quark matter created before or during the Quantum Chromo- Dynamics phase transition in the early universe, could provide a natural explanation for both Dark Matter (DM) and the observed cosmological baryon asymmetry, without requiring modifications to fundamental physics. This hypothesis implies a relic CCO population in the Solar System, captured during its formation, which would lead to a population of “strange asteroids,” bodies with mm-radii quark matter cores and ordinary matter (rock or ice) mantles. This hypothesis is supported by the observed population of small Very Fast Rotating (VFR) asteroids (bodies with rotation periods as short as 25 sec); the VFR data are consistent with a population of strange asteroids with core masses of order 10^10 - 10^11 kg. If the VFR asteroids are indeed strange asteroids their CCO cores could be mined using the techniques being developed for asteroid mining. Besides being intrinsically of great scientific interest, CCO cores could also serve as very powerful sources of energy, releasing a substantial fraction of the mass energy of incident particles as their quarks are absorbed into the QCD superfluid. Through a process analogous to Andreev reflection in superconductors[7], even normal matter CCOs could be used as antimatter factories, potentially providing as much as 10^9 kg of antimatter per CCO. While of course speculative, this energy source, if realized, would be suitable for propelling starships to a substantial fraction of the speed of light, and could be found, extracted and exploited in our Solar System with existing and near-term developments in technology.

The end of 2015 witnessed three seemingly unrelated developments: the establishment of a space hotline between Washington and Beijing, the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (Space Act), and the positive decision on jurisdiction by the arbitration court in Manila’s suit against Beijing concerning the South China Sea. The hotline seeks to minimise incidents arising from satellite operations and ASAT tests, while the legislation could pave the way to private exploration and exploitation of natural resources, including asteroid mining. The court decision, however, means that China’s claims and activities in the South China Sea will come under the scrutiny of an international judiciary. The question is whether the current confrontation between China and the US concerning the legal status of the South China Sea is a harbinger of things to come in the space commons.

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but thanks to recent technological advances, countries around the world are preparing for the possibility of mining asteroids as they rocket past Earth. Last year the US passed the "SPACE Act of 2015" allowing its citizens, if able, to mine and sell asteroid resources, while earlier this month Luxembourg announced that it was trying to jump start an industrial sector to mine asteroid resources in space. But what are the possibilities and should Australia be preparing for lift-off too? Join us for this online briefing as experts explore just what's up there, why we want it and whether we should be preparing for  future "space wars".

AS the world’s mineral resources diminish, scientists are looking to the skies for the next big mining discovery. Asteroids contain an abundance of key resources and metals that are essential for terrestrial development and celestial advancement, most of which are in decline on Earth. These include gold, silver, iridium, platinum and tungsten.

Alice Gorman from South Australia’s Flinders University said Australia was well placed to lead the way in the emerging industry, particularly in the areas of space law, policy and regulation.

Asteroid mining will require evaluation not only of the surface geology of a candidate asteroid, but ideally also a view of the interior of the body. This ability is important for either mission concept currently under consideration for the NASA Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM), and also for asteroid prospecting (the evaluation of asteroids as mining candidates). This talk will describe the principles of using 10 -40 MegaHertz (MHz) radio waves to observe completely through the interior of many types of small (< 100 meter diameter) Near Earth Objects (NEO).

This paper is meant to provide a comprehensible insight into the desirability, feasibility and sustainability of the planetary defense endeavor in its current form through the lens of critical security studies in political science in general and international relations in particular. Our objective is to discuss possible implications and desirable policy architecture of planetary defense within the framework of current theoretical research. Critical security studies are a useful approach to studying planetary defense as involved scientists and engineers tend to understand their efforts as normatively good because the outcome of these efforts is about our very survival. However, their and our, efforts have the potential to cause undesirable political effects on the international level when they can do good instead. A credible and reliable Planetary Defense strategy should propose solutions to a global threat similar to those being evolved to combat pandemics or climate change. In the unavoidable event of an asteroid impact, the strategy should also propose quick and effective recovery based on the best practices employed by natural disaster relief organizations around the world. If efforts are not coordinated at the global level, hasty and unprepared response can have potential to cause undesirable political effects on the international stage. A carefully constructed response strategy might even do good instead. The policy architecture discussing the involvement of various actors along with the selection of technologies will have implications on the international affairs; the purpose of this article is to show what might be the imaginable implications and how to steer them towards the general good. Planetary defense is a delicate topic; it is generally defensive and refers to the fate of humanity and the whole biosphere in enlightened cosmopolitan fashion but also seeks technology that could have latent aggressive, offensive potential despite the general tendency to talk about a deflection method what in fact can be an ultimate weapon of war.
The most intriguing concern is the use of nuclear weapons against asteroids which will not be in the interest of all nation states. We need to reflect the fact that we do not live in a cosmopolitan society but still in an international system consisting of sovereign nation states. Planetary defenders tend to forget this fact that defines how power is distributed worldwide – power that has the potential to poison any globalist efforts by denouncing discourse to preserve the principle of national sovereignty, the principle under which holding power in the hands of individuals is more easily achievable than being globally respected as an inspirational mind worthy of being followed. However, the agenda of planetary defense presents more importantly the path-defining potential to establish a cosmopolitan approach to various additional fundamental questions of humankind’s survival and, moreover, to humankind’s flourishing in general. Therefore, it has the chance to become a path-dependent policy agenda for other global questions influencing our well-being and the development of humanity as a whole.
Planetary defense is a very cosmopolitan agenda due to its global character. Nevertheless, we still live in an international system of nation states that requires a careful approach and strong argument. This conviction is the initial point of the following analysis. The vision of a cosmopolitan society is the very end of our efforts as well as a necessity for sustainable planetary defense.

Additive manufacturing or 3d printing enables manufacturing physical objects from three-dimensional digital models by laying down successive layers of material. Technology demonstrations have proved that such material could originate from a celestial body, such as an asteroid or the Moon. Thus, new objects could be manufactured using materials from celestial objects. Most legal orders provide that the manufacturer of a new object acquires original ownership thereon, while eventual property rights over the material used is lost. Such provision could qualify as a recognized general principle of law under Art. 38(1)(c) of the ICJ statute. Ownership through manufacturing might then be acquired, irrespective of the non-appropriation principle of Art. II Outer Space Treaty (OST). This paper examines whether the non-appropriation principle could be circumvented through manufacturing with celestial materials. It is submitted that the OST should prevail, if the non-appropriation principle covers exploitation of space resources. If the non-appropriation principle is inapplicable, then there is no point in examining whether it could be circumvented. In both scenaria, however, the practical question of the ownership of 3d-objects manufactured in space arises. It appears that the manufacturer would enjoy all elements of ownership, without being an owner according to international law. To solve the problem, it would be appropriate to establish an international organization under the UN auspices, at the example of the International Seabed Authority. Such organization would be the international administrator of the celestial resources and could grant tradable exploitation licenses to interested persons or entities against a fee. The fee could be a lump amount or a percentage of the net profits that the person/entity derives from exploitation of the resources. Ownership on the manufactured objects could then be legally recognized under international law, without affecting the non-appropriation principle.

There is general consensus to the claim that we are living in what is probably the most uncertain and geo-politically turbulent times since at least the cold war. With issues ranging from global terrorism, social anxiety in Europe due to the migrant crisis, oil price depreciations, climate change repercussions, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, economic stagnation and virus pandemics in South America etc. All under the umbrella of a global financial crisis and on edge regional powers. One would not be far off therefore in confusing world affairs for a Jackson Pollock painting. The similarities are uncanny; both are chaotic, colorful, inventive, and strategic. If we add to this milieu of international affairs the dynamics of space based technologies, which I will be talking about in this paper, we would truly be in a state of awe and trepidation when coming to terms with the capabilities and visions we as humans have come to master and conceptualize today.