Developing and Managing Moon and Mars Settlements in Accordance with International Space Law

Despite still being a few decades in the future, the idea of establishing an extra-terrestrial settlement on another celestial body, being it the Moon or Mars, has never been so strong. Moving from the premise that future Moon and Mars settlements shall not take place in a lawless space, this paper addresses the question of how to develop and manage them in accordance with international space law. To this end, it conducts a systematic analysis of the Outer Space Treaty (OST), with the goal of assessing the scope of the freedom to use celestial bodies under international space law. Based on this analysis, and building on the successful experience of the International Space Station, the paper proposes the development of open international settlements made of shared modular facilities. In accordance with the principles of adaptive governance and subsidiarity, the paper argues that the regulation of such settlements should be based on a multi-level framework integrating international recommendations and bilateral arrangements. Under the proposed governance scheme, international recommendations should provide a general framework enabling the development of the settlement, while leaving its management to the mutual agreement of the parties. Finally, the paper presents four essential goals to be achieved by the recommendations and ultimately concludes by arguing that while international cooperation in the development and management of extra-terrestrial settlements is not a legal obligation, it may very well be the only political option that we have to preserve the peaceful uses of outer space.