Topic: Private Sector Access to Outer Space
Country: Malaysia
Delegate Name: Carter Wade
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Malaysia position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
The "final frontier" of outer space is the ultimate culmination of human ingenuity. Its exploration has been entirely governmental in the past. However, recent economic, scientific, and political shifts have promoted an increased level of access to space launch technology both in the private sector and in the commercial sector. This dramatic shift in the power dynamic involving access to and control of space launch technology warrants an in depth investigation of the possible benefits and dangers of this shifting power dynamic and, should such action be found necessary, the implementation of international regulatory policies. The allowance of the private sector and commercial sector access to space launch technology would create competition in the new market and cause a general decrease in the cost of such technologies, a general increase in the safety of such systems, and a general increase in the ability to engineer faster development. Less desirable effects of reduced regulation of space launch technology include a steadily increasing risk of orbital collisions with the inevitable increase in the number of objects in outer space. This effect is known as the Kessler Effect. An example of the Kessler effect is when, on February tenth, 2009, at 16:56 U.T.C., Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 crashed into each other in low earth orbit. The debris from the collision more than doubled the number of objects orbiting the earth. The rapid increase in the amount of orbiting objects caused problems for other satellites. The International Space Station has been evacuated to a docked Soyez rocket on one occasion and has had to undergo evasive maneuvers on another occasion. Fortunately, international regulation of outer space has been shown to work in the past. Most notably, the United Nations Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water, registered on October fifteenth, 1963 and signed on August fifth, 1963, in Moscow.
