SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is steadfast in realizing his dreams of establishing a permanent colony on Mars, but any new government there will face enormous legal challenges.
We got a glimpse of what such a future society could look like early on, buried deep in the user agreement for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service.
“For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization device, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no government on Earth has authority or sovereignty over the activities of Mars,” read the terms of service. Accordingly, disputes will be resolved through self-governing principles established in good faith at the time of the settlement on Mars.
Musk has previously wondered what such a government might look like. At SXSW 2018, Musk told the audience that “the form of government on Mars would most likely be some kind of direct democracy … where people vote directly on issues rather than through representative government.”
However, lawyers have doubts about SpaceX’s ability to create a Martian state. In fact, several told The independent in a new story, what SpaceX has outlined in its Starlink User Agreement is not radically different from space treaties signed over the years.
“The entire space law means that we on this planet share the rights and responsibility to make space something that we can all share together,” Randy Segal of Hogan Lovells law firm told the paper.
For example, the 2020 Artemis Accords stipulate that “space is not subject to national appropriation through claim to sovereignty, through use or occupation, or in any other way.”
Musk may already be taking baby steps toward nation building, Segal said.
“He could try to lay a foundation for offering an independent constitution … just as he did for electric cars and reusable launch vehicles,” Segal said. The independent. “Does it have a precedent or is it enforceable? The answer I would say is clearly no; but if you say something enough, people might come by. “
Frans Von der Dunk, a space science expert at Nebraska College of Law, brought the question to Earth by pointing out that it would probably be many years before anyone even goes to Mars, let alone establish a government there. to target.
“I have to reach out to the real scientists here, some claiming maybe 10 years, others more a century or more,” said der Dunk The independent. “I would probably put myself somewhere safe in the middle.”
READ MORE: The Battle for Mars: How Elon Musk, Blue Origin, and the US Could Build the First Alien Government [The Independent]
More about Martian colonies: Elon Musk: First City of Mars begins with glass domes