SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is steadfast in realizing his dreams of setting up a permanent colony on Mars, but any new government there will face huge legal challenges.
We had a brief look at what such a future company might look like, buried deep in the user agreement for SpaceX’s satellite Internet service Starlink.
“For services provided to Mars or in transit to Mars by Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no government on Earth has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities,” the service read. “Consequently, disputes will be settled by principles of self-government, established in good faith, at the time of the Martian settlement.”
Musk has previously pondered what such a government might look like. During SXSW 2018, Musk told the public that “most likely, the form of government on Mars would be something of a direct democracy … in which people vote directly on issues instead of going through a representative government.”
However, lawyers have doubts about SpaceX’s ability to set up a Martian state. In fact, several have said Independentul in a new story, what SpaceX has established in its Starlink usage agreement is not radically different from the space treaties that have been signed over the years.
“The entire space law takes into account the fact that those on this planet share the rights and responsibility to make space something we can all share together,” Randy Segal, of the law firm Hogan Lovells, told the newspaper.
For example, the Artemis 2020 agreements stipulate that “outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claiming sovereignty, use or occupation or by any other means”.
Musk may already be taking steps to build the nation, Segal said.
“It could try to lay the groundwork for an independent constitution … just as it did for reusable electric cars and launch vehicles,” Segal said. Independentul. “Does it have any precedent or enforceability? The answer I would say is clearly no; but if you say something enough, people might come around. “
Frans Von der Dunk, an expert in space law at the Nebraska College of Law, brought the question to Earth, stressing that many years will probably pass before someone even reaches Mars, never thinking of setting up a government there.
“I have to refer to the real scientists here, some of whom could claim 10 years, others more than a century or more,” said der Dunk Independentul. “I’d probably be somewhere safe in the middle.”
READ MORE: Battle for Mars: How Elon Musk, Blue Origin, and the US Could Set Up First Alien Government [The Independent]
More about the Martian colonies: Elon Musk: The first city of Mars will start with glass domes