{"dataset":{"slug":"space-policy-and-economy","title":"Space Policy, Sustainability & Economy","description":"The institutional layer of space activity — the space-law treaties (Outer Space Treaty, Liability, Registration, Moon, Artemis Accords), the policy and sustainability topics (orbital debris, Kessler syndrome, traffic management, mega-constellations), and the space-economy topics.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":20,"sources":["nasa"]},"entities":[{"id":"space_economy_topic:commercial-launch","name":"Commercial Launch","type":"space_economy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The private launch industry that has driven the cost of reaching orbit down by an order of magnitude — through reusable rockets and competition — and opened space to companies, universities, and nations that could never before afford it.","entryPath":"/space-policy/commercial-launch"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:debris-mitigation","name":"Debris Mitigation","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The guidelines and practices meant to limit the creation of new debris — deorbiting satellites at end of life, venting spent rocket stages so they cannot explode, and clearing valuable orbits within a set number of years after a mission ends.","entryPath":"/space-policy/debris-mitigation"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:export-control-and-dual-use","name":"Export Control & Dual-Use Technology","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The regulation of space technologies that have both civilian and military uses — rockets, sensors, and satellites — controlling their transfer across borders. It shapes who can build and buy space hardware, and is a persistent tension in the global space industry.","entryPath":"/space-policy/export-control-and-dual-use"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:launch-licensing","name":"Launch Licensing","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The regulatory approval a national authority requires before a launch, covering public safety, liability insurance, and environmental review. It is the gate through which every launch must pass, and a major point of national space governance.","entryPath":"/space-policy/launch-licensing"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:mega-constellations","name":"Mega-Constellations","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The deployment of constellations of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit to provide global broadband. They transform the economics of space but sharply raise concerns over orbital traffic, collision risk, radio-frequency use, and the brightness of the night sky for astronomy.","entryPath":"/space-policy/mega-constellations"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:orbital-debris","name":"Orbital Debris","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The growing population of defunct satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments of past collisions and explosions that circle the Earth. Travelling at kilometres per second, even a small piece can destroy an operational spacecraft, and there are millions of untracked fragments.","entryPath":"/space-policy/orbital-debris"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:planetary-protection-policy","name":"Planetary Protection Policy","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The international policy framework — coordinated by COSPAR — that keeps missions from contaminating other worlds with terrestrial microbes, and Earth from any hazard in returned samples. It turns the science of planetary protection into binding mission requirements.","entryPath":"/space-policy/planetary-protection-policy"},{"id":"space_economy_topic:space-insurance","name":"Space Insurance","type":"space_economy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The specialised insurance market that underwrites the risk of launching and operating satellites — covering the moments when a rocket can fail and the years a satellite must survive the hazards of space. It is a small but essential enabler of commercial space.","entryPath":"/space-policy/space-insurance"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:space-resource-policy","name":"Space Resource Policy","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The unsettled question of who may extract and own resources from the Moon and asteroids, and under what rules. The Outer Space Treaty forbids claiming territory, but says little about mining, and nations are now enacting their own laws — a live and contested frontier of space law.","entryPath":"/space-policy/space-resource-policy"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:space-situational-awareness","name":"Space Situational Awareness","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The tracking and cataloguing of the tens of thousands of objects in orbit, and the prediction of close approaches, so that operators can be warned and collisions avoided. It is the sensing foundation on which any traffic management must rest.","entryPath":"/space-policy/space-situational-awareness"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:space-traffic-management","name":"Space Traffic Management","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The coordination of spacecraft operations — who moves, when, and how — to prevent collisions as orbits grow crowded. Unlike air or sea traffic, space has no established global authority to direct it, making it an urgent and unsolved governance problem.","entryPath":"/space-policy/space-traffic-management"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:spectrum-allocation","name":"Spectrum & Orbital-Slot Allocation","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The international coordination of the radio-frequency spectrum satellites use and the orbital slots they occupy — especially the crowded geostationary arc — managed through the International Telecommunication Union to prevent interference.","entryPath":"/space-policy/spectrum-allocation"},{"id":"space_treaty:artemis-accords","name":"The Artemis Accords","type":"space_treaty","domain":"science","description":"A set of principles for cooperative, peaceful, and transparent exploration of the Moon and beyond, established in 2020 and led by NASA, and signed by a growing number of nations. They interpret the Outer Space Treaty for a new era of lunar activity, including the use of space resources.","entryPath":"/space-policy/artemis-accords"},{"id":"space_policy_topic:kessler-syndrome","name":"The Kessler Syndrome","type":"space_policy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The scenario, named for Donald Kessler, in which the density of objects in orbit becomes high enough that collisions cascade — each impact creating more debris that causes further impacts — potentially making some orbits unusable for generations.","entryPath":"/space-policy/kessler-syndrome"},{"id":"space_treaty:liability-convention","name":"The Liability Convention","type":"space_treaty","domain":"science","description":"A 1972 convention that elaborates the Outer Space Treaty's liability principle: a launching state is absolutely liable for damage its space objects cause on the Earth's surface or to aircraft, and liable for fault for damage caused in space.","entryPath":"/space-policy/liability-convention"},{"id":"space_treaty:moon-agreement","name":"The Moon Agreement","type":"space_treaty","domain":"science","description":"A 1979 agreement declaring the Moon and its natural resources the common heritage of mankind and calling for an international regime to govern their exploitation. It has been ratified by only a handful of states, none of them major spacefaring powers, which limits its force.","entryPath":"/space-policy/moon-agreement"},{"id":"space_treaty:outer-space-treaty","name":"The Outer Space Treaty","type":"space_treaty","domain":"science","description":"The founding treaty of international space law, opened for signature in 1967. It declares space free for exploration and use by all nations, forbids any state from claiming sovereignty over the Moon or other bodies, bans weapons of mass destruction in orbit, and makes states responsible for their national space activities — governmental or private.","entryPath":"/space-policy/outer-space-treaty"},{"id":"space_treaty:registration-convention","name":"The Registration Convention","type":"space_treaty","domain":"science","description":"A 1975 convention, in force from 1976, requiring states to register the objects they launch into space with the United Nations, so that space objects can be identified — the basis of the UN register of space objects that UNOOSA maintains.","entryPath":"/space-policy/registration-convention"},{"id":"space_economy_topic:the-satellite-economy","name":"The Satellite Economy","type":"space_economy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The largest part of the space economy — the industry built on satellites for communications, navigation, and Earth observation, whose services underpin the modern economy on the ground, from banking timestamps to weather forecasts to global positioning.","entryPath":"/space-policy/the-satellite-economy"},{"id":"space_economy_topic:the-space-economy","name":"The Space Economy","type":"space_economy_topic","domain":"science","description":"The whole economic system of space activity — launch, satellites, ground systems, services, and the emerging markets in resources and on-orbit servicing — and the far larger value it creates on Earth. Increasingly it is driven by private capital as much as by governments.","entryPath":"/space-policy/the-space-economy"}]}