Beyond the Pale Blue Dot: Sustainability in Space Resource Policy

Author/​Artist
Usinger, Brett [Browse]
Format
Senior thesis
Language
English

Availability

Available Online

Details

Advisor(s)
Chyba, Christopher F. [Browse]
Certificate
Princeton University. Program in Environmental Studies [Browse]
Class year
2017
Summary note
Which type of resource management regime is best suited to encourage the sustainable development of large-scale asteroid mining practices in the future? Using economic metrics of excludability and rivalry as a means of classifying resource types, this thesis reexamines the history of outer space policy in the international community and, more particularly, the United States. I analyze the extent to which policies governing permissible activities in space have aligned with the contemporaneous function of space as a resource pool. I then extrapolate into the future, considering whether near-Earth asteroids may one day function as a common-pool resource amidst heightened mining activity in space. I argue that such a scenario should not be discounted, and that within such a landscape, we should establish an international asteroid permit agency through the UN to ensure an orderly, sustainable, and equitable mining environment.
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