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.
