The Legal System sub-team focuses on the legal frameworks and regulations necessary for establishing long-term space habitation. We aim to identify, evaluate, and propose effective legal structures for future space settlements based off our research. This involves summarizing existing legal systems from governmental bodies and private space companies including NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin. We are also conducting a comparative analysis to identify gaps in these frameworks, specifically examining areas like criminal law, governance, property rights, environmental law, and immigration. To inform our recommendations, we analyze relevant historical examples and lessons learned from past space missions and terrestrial analog environments, such as the Viking settlements, Antarctic “Baby Race,” and the International Space Station. Ultimately, we aim to provide well-informed recommendations from historical corollaries, existing legal literature, and current government regulations to enhance proposed legal systems for humanity’s future in space.
Author: Makayla Doyle Page 1 of 3
This is our idea of what space settlements might look like—not what they will look like, and certainly not what they should look like. More details coming soon.
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Though menaced by nearby rival settlements like Terra Town, Crater City has long been protected by Moonage SpaceBase, the earliest continually armed fortification on Mars, which has provided private security for free trade, commerce, and technological innovation in the Red Planet’s busiest spaceport and liveliest economic hub.
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Moonage SpaceBase is staffed by a private security force, gathered from some of the premier firms on Earth. Crater City is not militarized—it’s just protected, against deleterious influences both terrestrial and astral in origin.
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In close contact with the Board of Directors on Earth, Star Company is nonetheless operated directly by the Town Council (seven members are employees and shareholders of SC and three members are non-employees with no financial stake in the company), and they are voted on by the voting committee appointed by the Board.
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Pathways to wealth accumulation have been closed on Earth since the Major Downturn. The best place to elevate yourself, from spaceport-longshoreman to shop leader to management to the Board is here in Crater City! Ad astra per aspera. The Sol never sets on Crater City.
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Here at Red Rock we are conducting valuable, cutting-edge research into human life at the extremes. Our executive team has extensive experience in Antarctic research administration and polar mining on Earth and is transporting that expertise to the moon. Featuring the same dynamic partnership between labor and management that characterized our highly profitable, consistently strong ROI ventures on Earth, Red Rock offers opportunities for both workers and investors; settlers and virtual financiers; and scientists and businesspeople.
This week we are celebrating the groundbreaking on a new research site, where we are exploring the technological benefits of a new kind of ore. Here at Red Rock we build fast and smart, innovating and developing at an astonishing speed. The only thing we could use is some more people to join us on this taxing but rewarding journey! Join us for a celebration of the town!
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We cannot complete this project without you. There is no future of human civilization without brave pioneers and settlers to make it happen. Forget what you heard decades ago about cramped quarters and long wait times—you will ride in luxury through the cosmos and upon your arrival, you will begin a great new life in the off-world colonies. You will not be under the direct supervision of anyone, instead stewarding a small plot or workshop for the cultivation and/or production of the resources necessary to sustain Terra Town. You will keep the light burning in humanity’s last best hope for hedging against a terrestrial apocalypse. No one can fence you in up here, and no zoning laws or statutes will prohibit private trade and the “lunar dream.” You will get rich, achieve social mobility, and send remittances back to Earth in this time of crisis. Join us!
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“Self-Reliance in the Stars” Project
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Ways you can employ yourself in Terra Town*
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Independent farming and mining*
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Shopkeeping
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Independent crafts (we subsidize you to make clothes!)
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Work for the land board and help chart the legal future of Terra Town!
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Police
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Role: Faculty Lead
Role: Faculty Lead
Duke Experience: Perkins Professor of Law; Professor of Environmental Policy and Public Policy; Co-Director, Duke Center on Risk
Contact: Email
Role: Faculty Lead
Duke Experience: Director, Duke Space Diplomacy Lab; Professor of the Practice, Social Science Research Institute; Professor of the Practice of History; Professor of the Practice of Economics
Contact: Email
Role: Project Manager, Legal Systems