On June 24th, The Registration Project held its first Public Workshop in order to bring its work before a college of space law experts (as well as the general public) to seek broader input from all stakeholders. The Workshop was hosted by Moon Dialogs as part of a series of high-profile webinars focused on the governance of lunar activity.
The invited experts at the Workshop included a who’s who of space law luminaries from academia, government, and industry. The two-hour conversation brought a number of new insights and added considerable depth to the growing commentary on registration law and practice that is being developed by the Project members.
The Registration Project was launched earlier this year to address the shortcomings of existing law and practice regarding the registration as humankind returns to the Moon. This self-governed working group is a joint venture of the Moon Village Association (MVA) and the Global Space Law Center (GSLC) at Cleveland State University. The group consists of 25 members from around the world drawn from industry, academia, government, and nongovernmental organizations. Prof. Sundahl serves as the co-chair of the Project, together with Antonino Salmeri.
The ultimate work product of the Registration Project will be a White Paper to be submitted to the COPUOS in order to encourage the multilateral discussion of issues related to registration law and practice. The Project’s work will also be shared with the MVA’s Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activities (GEGLSA) in order to supplement the GEGSLA’s work regarding registration.
Prof. Sundahl Quoted in Gizmodo and Delivers Keynote Address
The GSLC’s director, Prof. Mark J. Sundahl, recently appeared on the popular hi-tech news website, Gizmodo, about the emergence of private astronauts. Prof. Sundahl even engaged in some fairly optimistic prognostication:
By 2031, I expect that lines will be forming to take a trip to the Moon—and [SpaceX’s] Starship has been designed to meet this demand with the capacity to deliver 100 people in a single flight.
Prof. Sundahl also delivered the July 13 Keynote Address at the MVA’s technical competition, Towards a Lunar Generation. The title of the address was Shattering Paradigms, Possible Futures, and the Next Generation of Space Law and took the attendees through a meditation on the radical transformation of space law that is on the horizon.