Moon Space Law: Legal Debate Swirls Around Private Lunar Ventures

A recent action by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is stirring up some moon dust in a legal debate about private companies setting up shop on the moon.

In late 2014, the FAA's Office of the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) responded favorably to a Bigelow Aerospace's "payload review" request. This query related to commercial development of the moon. Some view the verdict as a necessary step toward creating a legal framework for businesses to set up shop on the moon. But it's also clear more legal conversations are in the offing.

Without a legal framework, proponents of lunar business say that investors won't develop the financial and technical wherewithal to build industry on the moon. There's need for assurance from the United States government that private-sector activities will be approved and protected when they aim for the moon. [Bigelow Aerospace's Inflatable Space Station Idea (Photos)]

The FAA/AST decision also involved other federal agencies, including NASA, the Department of State and the Department of Defense. Bigelow Aerospace was assured that the AST would use its launch-licensing authority, as best it can, to protect private sector assets on the moon. The intent is to provide a safe environment for U.S. firms to conduct peaceful commercial activities on the moonwithout fear of harmful interference from other AST licensees.

"This response is a modest yet important initial step toward creating an environment that will encourage both today's and tomorrow's entrepreneurs to focus their resources on the moon," said Mike Gold, Director of Washington, D.C., operations and business growth for Bigelow Aerospace, LLC.

Bigelow Aerospace is keen on deploying, testing and utilizing the firm's expandable habitats in low Earth orbit before landing them on the moon, Gold told Space.com.

"Decisions such as the AST's payload review response help to encourage continued investment by Bigelow Aerospace in lunar development, and while a great deal of work remains to be done, we believe that a private sector lunar settlement could be established much more quickly and affordably than most would suspect," Gold said.

The FAA/AST action creates a number of issues that need addressing, said Michael Listner, the founder and principal of the firm Space Law and Policy Solutions, based in New Hampshire.

"Based on what I've read in media reports, it appears that while the FAA has taken steps to support Bigelow's future establishment of lunar modules on the moon, it also recognizes that Title 51, Chapter 509 (Commercial Space Launch Act) as currently amended limits their ability to fully endorse those plans through the grant of a launch license," Listner said.

Listner said the path forward is two-fold: