As an international space lawyer I am besides excited to see some elements of space law derive to the airfoil. Without wanting to spoil the film for anyone who has not seen it, I want to comment on a few such issues which arose in the movie .The most obvious were the references made by Watney himself. As he prepares to leave the US NASA-owned “ Hab ”, or the inhabitancy pod, and cover a large distance in search of a small US-owned skyrocket stationed there for a future mission, he comments in a video recording log that he is leaving US territory to enter what is basically external waters. As he states, there is a treaty which says that cipher can own any lifelike object in distance, including a planet. This treaty is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, and Article II says that knocked out space, including any celestial body ( all planets, moons and asteroids ) is “ not national to national annexation, by means of claims of reign or by any early means. ”
Watney says this means that space falls under nautical law, which is not wholly discipline, but it ’ s an easy way to translate to a non-law audience what it means that no State may claim reign over any lifelike object in outer space. many people have a basic understand that the high seas belong to no-one .
He then says that because he will cross from the US owned Hab to basically commandeer a skyrocket which he has not been given permission to enter and use, while in “ external waters ”, this makes him the earth ’ second first quad pirate. A bite of sci-fi fun, to be certain, and if he were in fact commandeering a space vehicle without license, he could be considered a outer space pirate. But in fact he boards the US-owned rocket with the wax accept and cooperation of NASA, frankincense moving from one location which falls under US legal power to another, without breaching any international law .
Watney is correct in stating that when he is in the NASA Hab, and once he is inside the NASA rocket, he falls under US law. According to Article VIII of the Outer Space Treaty, the State which registers the launch of an object under its legal power maintains jurisdiction over that object, and besides over any personnel on that object at all times .
As well, under Article I of the Outer Space Treaty, everyone has freedom of access to outer space and all areas of celestial bodies, without prejudice ; frankincense his movement across the martian terrain from one object to the next is wholly permissible, deoxyadenosine monophosphate long as it is peaceful : Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty states that “ the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty entirely for peaceful purposes. ”
One authoritative missing piece in the film is the international quad law that obligates all States who are able to do so, to assist an astronaut in distress. Article V of the Outer Space Treaty denotes astronauts as “ envoys of world ”, and creates an duty to assist the astronauts of another State which crash on one ’ sulfur own territory or on the high seas ; or if a State has astronauts of its own in space who can help the astronauts of another State in distance, they must do then. The 1968 Astronaut Agreement took this a step foster ; Article I says that if the distress occurs in an area that is beyond the district of any state, then any submit party that is in a position to do so shall, if necessary, extend aid in the search and rescue operation. The Astronaut Agreement about didn ’ triiodothyronine come into being, since it includes clauses that obligate States not only to aid astronauts in distress, but besides to return all objects that might land on one ’ sulfur district as the solution of an accident. Given that there was much secrecy as to space capabilities during the Cold War, and the USSR and the USA were the only two space-faring nations, there was some reluctance to agree to the obligation to hand over bits of an adversary ’ mho engineering which might otherwise be useful to study and learn from. however in 1967 in two separate incidents, both the US and the USSR suffered the loss of astronauts in tragic accidents, and as a consequence the Astronaut Agreement came into being .
In the movie ( spoiler alert ! ), the Chinese National Space Administration offers help to NASA of its own volition, since it has a secret engineering of which the US is unaware. It offers a small pod which can act as a rendez-vous with the larger outer space ship that is set on course to Mars to rescue Watney, and in doing so gives away its privy technology. The decision to do thus is a political one : as the president of the united states of the Chinese National Space Administration says, if the universe were to come to know after the fact that China could have helped and did not, this would be black. possibly this was a nod to the Astronaut Agreement, but it would have been nice to have it named explicitly, particularly since China is a party .
therefore a new cooperation is born – however it is done so cautiously between the distance agencies and between the scientists, rather than between the heads of State or through diplomatic channels. This is in fact quite a probable depiction. During the Cold War, as uranium presidents and USSR Chairmen changed, and policies on space changed excessively, it was decided among the scientists on both sides to partake information for common benefit, and to co-operate at a peaceful and neutral level on advancing human space flight.
In this respect it was a dishonor that the scenario depicted in “ The Martian ” is an entirely united states NASA mission to Mars. As the international cooperation on the International Space Station demonstrates, even in times of political tensions, Canada, the EU, Japan, Russia and the US continue to work together, since the mission depends wholly upon cooperation. similarly, the european Space Agency conducted the successful Rosetta project, and in 2015 landed it ’ s smaller probe Philae on an asteroid to study it, due to the cooperation of multiple european States. surely it has become clear that as space exploration becomes more complex, multinational projects are the most likely way forward, sharing the fiscal burdens and risks, but besides benefiting in precisely the way the Outer Space Treaty intended : article I states “ the exploration and use of knocked out space shall be carried out for the benefit of and in the interests all countries… ”
That said, kudos to author Andy Weir for including Chinese-US cooperation in his history of collaboration and collective problem solving. In the final scenes ( another humble pamperer alert ), approximately a year after Watney ’ south adventures have come to a close, the next Mars mission is being launched and it includes one Chinese astronaut. The President of the Chinese National Space Administration and his adviser are in the room shaking hands with the NASA team. This was sincerely a history of optimism, scientific creativity, cooperation and collaboration, and ( by and large ! ) in line with existing external space law .
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