Space Resources Act

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With the law on the exploration and use of space resources (abbreviated: Space Resources Law ), the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is the first European country to regulate mining in space with a national law. In 2015, the US passed a similar regulation for US citizens, the Space Act of 2015 .

history

On November 11, 2016, the Luxembourg government presented a law to regulate property rights in space.

On July 13, 2017, the law was adopted and passed almost unanimously by the Chamber of Deputies and on July 14 by the State Council of the Grand Duchy. The law was signed on July 20, 2017 and published in the Official Gazette on July 28, 2017. The Space Resources Act came into effect on August 1, 2017.

Structure of the law

The Space Resources Act consists of 18 articles. The most important provisions are:

Only the resources obtained within the framework of the permit can be appropriated (Article 1 - Note: the ownership of celestial bodies is not regulated). There is a compulsory purchase of a license from the Luxembourg government to explore and use space resources (Article 2), this license only for a public limited company , limited partnership or limited liability company under Luxembourg law or a European company with seat is granted in Luxembourg for individual missions and the company must have sufficient transparency, sufficient financial resources and capacity to act have (articles 4 to 12 - Note: in addition to the Luxembourg marketing authorization may, of course, other states issue permits).

According to Article 18, Paragraph 1, imprisonment from 8 days to five years and a fine of 5,000 to 1,250,000 euros can be imposed if Article 2 of the Space Resources Act is violated. According to Article 18 paragraph 2, serious violations of Articles 5, 9 paragraph 3, paragraph 1, 11 paragraph 1 or 2 or the conditions of admission can be punished with imprisonment from 8 days to one year and a fine of 1,250 to 500,000 euros.

In addition, a court can order the cessation of the operations and threaten a fine that may not exceed one million euros per day.

Space Resources

The basis for the law is, among other things, the Luxembourg government initiative Space Resources . The combined here companies are looking, for example, hydrogen and oxygen as fuel for spacecraft in all win and astronauts with on asteroid the found water future supply and other findings regarding. Asteroid mining to achieve.

The Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Affairs, Etienne Schneider , announced on July 13, 2017 that the initiative had so far included six companies and that a seventh would be presented on July 24. Two of the companies involved are Deep Space Industries (DSI) and Planetary Resources (PR) from the USA , which have opened their European branches in the Grand Duchy, while the Luxembourg state z. B. became a partner in the PR parent company.

criticism

Stephan Hobe , Director of the Institute for Air and Space Law at the University of Cologne, described the Luxembourg law on the use of space resources as “grossly contrary to international law ”.

collaboration

Etienne Schneider and Wilbur Ross signed an agreement between Luxembourg and the USA on May 10, 2019 on future cooperation in the commercial exploitation of space. The agreement is designed to enable close political collaboration and the promotion of new business and investment opportunities, as well as collaboration in areas such as civil research, earth observation, the commercial exploitation of near-Earth asteroids, space navigation and communications.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Space mining  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official name: Loi du 20 juillet 2017 sur l'exploration et l'utilisation des ressources de l'espace (law of July 20, 2017 on the exploration and use of space resources).
  2. ↑ Luxembourg regulates mining in space - natural resources from space , Die Zeit online, 13 July 2017.
  3. ↑ HR2262 - US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act congress.gov
  4. ↑ Grand Duchy plans space initiative - Luxembourg wants to reach the top , Die Tageszeitung, November 121, 2016.
  5. ↑ Luxembourg regulates "mining" in space , Chip.de, July 13, 2017. See also legal text.
  6. ↑ Luxembourg regulates mining in space - natural resources from space , Die Zeit online, 13 July 2017.
  7. ↑ Luxembourg's Space Act - How to fish in space ( Memento of the original from August 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , ZDF today, August 1, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heute.de
  8. ↑ See also Christoph Seidler: Luxembourg wants to become a leading space nation , Der Spiegel online, June 3, 2016.
  9. ↑ spaceresources.public.lu
  10. ↑ Luxembourg regulates mining in space - natural resources from space , Die Zeit online, 13 July 2017
  11. ↑ Laurent Schmit: The Luxembourg law is provocative , Luxemburger Wort , August 10, 2017 and Mélanie Chenouard, Yves Brua, Patricia Zeissloff, Anne Mangin: Luxembourg conquers space resources , ARTE, August 1, 2017.
  12. ↑ Ross meets Schneider: Cooperation in space mining , Luxemburger Wort of May 10, 2019.