Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

Space exploration is no longer isolated to national space programs, private companies such as SpaceX have taken the lead in space exploration. These private organizations often partner with national space organizations around the world. While these organizations can greatly benefit the scientific community, their activities in space are largely unregulated. Most space treaties deal with the relationship between a country and space, not a private company.

Private space organizations have different goals than national space organizations. The main interest would be space mining. Whether this mining takes place on the moon, another planet, or asteroids, space companies can profit substantially from these operations. The issue is that there is no agreement over who owns resources in space.

If companies are allowed to mine space resources, and sell these resources in Earth markets, then should countries be allowed to do the same? Countries would be able to justify their own space mining operations. Without regulations, countries might compete over resources in space, defining their own territories, and defending their operations.

This committee needs to define several aspects of space mining, like how to protect property in space? How to hold organizations accountable in space? Is there any restriction on what should be mined? What about rarer elements and nuclear materials?

After President Obama signed Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (2015), space mining can be operated by private companies in the United States. It seems reasonable to explore the space for resources since the resources on Earth is depleting, but there are some ethical, legal, and environmental issues delegates must answer. The regulation of space mining activities, conflict resolving mechanism, establishment of international law, are all problems not noticed by the international community. Despite the scientific evidence that space mining could help Earth to fight against climate change because human acquires resources from outer space, how would this affect Earth’s ecosystem, and is it the ultimate solution for building a sustainable environment?

In this committee, as a delegate, you will discuss legal, ethical, economical, and environmental aspects of the issue, since space mining is a pivotal point for human development, it can have both positive and negative effects depending on how they are solved. In this committee, the future of resources for the next century is in your hands.