Space Security Law
Against the variegated background of bewilderment and cautious optimism that space transportation offers, this book begins with an exposé on international politics, the principles of which, bear upon space transportation, as well as the closeness of air s
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Ruwantissa Abeyratne
Space Security Law
Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne International Civil Aviation Organization 999 University Street Montreal H3C 5H7, Quebec Canada [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-642-16701-0 e-ISBN 978-3-642-16702-7 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-16702-7 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
By any modern standards of human endeavor and research, communications made possible by global navigation satellite systems and space transportation stand preeminent in the wonderment they offer. What began as exploration of outer space in the nineteen fifties and sixties is now full blown tourism in space. Added to that is the startling possibility of the existence of life in outer space which makes us not only think but wonder in amazement. Stephen Hawking – one of the world’s most eminent and knowledgeable physicists – has stated that in a universe with 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars, it is unlikely that life forms are present only on Earth. Hawking has also said: To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. . . the real challenge is working out what aliens might actually be like1 . . . I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.2
Against this bewildering backdrop, we continue to use and explore outer space, take pictures, calculate trajectories of planets and determine who owns the moon and what the purpose of outer space exploration is. An added dimension is the use of aerospace in terrestrial transportation where an aerospace plane will take off as an aircraft, go into orbit, enter the atmosphere using the Earth’s orbit into its destination, cutting the travel time significantly. It is said that by using this method, air travel time can be reduced drastically. For instance, a journey by air between Los Angeles and Syd
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