미국 우주기업 비글로 에어로스페이스(Bigelow Aerospace), '달 기지' 건설한다 Exclusive - The FAA: regulating business on the moon(VIDEO)

미 연방항공청(FAA),'예비적' 승인

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달의 자원을 활용할 수 있는 미항공우주국 나사(NASA)의 기술

http://mirian.kisti.re.kr/futuremonitor/view.jsp?record_no=244644&cont_cd=GT

케이콘텐츠 kcontents

 

'우주호텔' 건설의 선구자격인 미국 민간우주기업 비글로 에어로스페이스의 달 기지 건설 가능성이 한층 더 커졌습니다. 미 연방항공청(FAA)이 작년 12월 말 비글로에 서한을 보내 달 기지 건설사업을 '예비적으로' 승인했기 때문입니다. 로이터가 입수한 서한을 보면 FAA는 현재 갖고 있는 민간기업 우주개발 승인권을 활용해 민간기업이 아무런 간섭을 받지 않고 우주를 상업적으로 개발할 수 있도록 하고자 한다고 밝혔습니다. 이는 인간이 머물 수 있는 달 기지 건설사업을 추진하는 비글로가 기지를 세울 수 있고 기지 주변지역에서 채광이나 탐사 등의 상업 활동도 독점적으로 할 수 있음을 의미한다고 전문가들은 풀이했습니다. 비글로의 달 기지 건설이 본격화하려면 미 정부가 먼저 해야할 일이 있습니다. 미 정부는 1967년 발효한 유엔우주조약에 맞춰 국내법을 손질해야 합니다. FAA는 서한에서 미국이 회원국으로서 우주조약을 이행하기에는 현재의 법이 부실하다는 미 국무부의 우려도 언급했습니다. 이 조약은 회원국 정부가 비정부 기관의 우주개발을 승인 및 감독하도록 하고 있습니다. 또 우주 내 핵무기 사용은 물론 달을 비롯한 천체에 대한 소유도 금지합니다. 아울러 우주개발이 모든 나라에 혜택을 주는 방향으로 이뤄져야 한다고 규정합니다. 미 정부는 달 기지 건설 등 우주의 상업적 개발과 관련해 다른 나라들과 외교적 조율도 해야 합니다. 달 소유권 등을 규정하는 '달 조약'에 미국이 가입하지 않은 점도 걸림돌입니다. 우주개발 원칙을 담은 우주조약에 이어 나온 일부 조약들 가운데 하나인 달 조약은 1984년 발효했습니다. FAA의 서한 발송은 비글로 측이 달 기지 건설사업에 대한 입장을 알려달라고 요청한 데 따른 것입니다. 네바다 주에 있는 이 회사는 해당 사업에 3억 달러(약 3천200억 원)를 투자할 예정입니다. 또 달 기지 건설에 앞서 올해 중 국제우주정거장(ISS)에서 '달 기지' 실험을 시작할 계획입니다. FAA의 이번 조치에 따라 미국의 여타 민간우주기업들이 달에서 지구로 가져온 흙과 돌 등에 대한 소유권을 갖게 될지 예의주시하고 있습니다. (SBS 뉴미디어부)

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is displayed during a media briefing where it was 

announced that the BEAM expandable space habitat technology will be tested on the International 

Space Station, in Las Vegas in this January 16, 2013 picture provided by NASA. 

Credit: Reuters/NASA/Bill Ingalls/Handout via Reuters

By Irene Klotz (Reuters) - The United States government has taken a new, though preliminary, step to encourage commercial development of the moon.  According to documents obtained by Reuters, U.S. companies can stake claims to lunar territory through an existing licensing process for space launches. The Federal Aviation Administration, in a previously undisclosed late-December letter to Bigelow Aerospace, said the agency intends to “leverage the FAA’s existing launch licensing authority to encourage private sector investments in space systems by ensuring that commercial activities can be conducted on a non-interference basis.”  In other words, experts said, Bigelow could set up one of its proposed inflatable habitats on the moon, and expect to have exclusive rights to that territory - as well as related areas that might be tapped for mining, exploration and other activities.  However, the FAA letter noted a concern flagged by the U.S. State Department that “the national regulatory framework, in its present form, is ill-equipped to enable the U.S. government to fulfill its obligations” under a 1967 United Nations treaty, which, in part, governs activities on the moon.  The United Nations Outer Space treaty, in part, requires countries to authorize and supervise activities of non-government entities that are operating in space, including the moon. It also bans nuclear weapons in space, prohibits national claims to celestial bodies and stipulates that space exploration and development should benefit all countries. “We didn’t give (Bigelow Aerospace) a license to land on the moon. We’re talking about a payload review that would potentially be part of a future launch license request. But it served a purpose of documenting a serious proposal for a U.S. company to engage in this activity that has high-level policy implications,” said the FAA letter’s author, George Nield, associate administrator for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Transportation. “We recognize the private sector’s need to protect its assets and personnel on the moon or on other celestial bodies," the FAA wrote in the December letter to Bigelow Aerospace. The company, based in Nevada, is developing the inflatable space habitats. Bigelow requested the policy statement from the FAA, which oversees commercial space transportation in the U.S.  The letter was coordinated with U.S. departments of State, Defense, Commerce, as well as NASA and other agencies involved in space operations. It expands the FAA’s scope from launch licensing to U.S. companies’ planned activities on the moon, a region currently governed only by the nearly 50-year old UN space treaty.  But the letter also points to more legal and diplomatic work that will have to be done to govern potential commercial development of the moon or other extraterrestrial bodies. “It’s very much a wild west kind of mentality and approach right now,” said John Thornton, chief executive of private owned Astrobotic, a startup lunar transportation and services firm competing in a $30 million Google-backed moon exploration XPrize contest.  Among the pending issues is lunar property and mineral rights, a topic that was discussed and tabled in the 1970s in a sister UN proposal called the Moon Treaty. It was signed by just nine countries, including France, but not the United States. "It is important to remember that many space-faring nations have national companies that engage in commercial space activities. They will definitely want to be part of the rule making process," said Joanne Gabrynowicz, a professor of space law at University of Mississippi .     Bigelow Aerospace is expected to begin testing a space habitat aboard the International Space Station this year. The company intends to then operate free-flying orbital outposts for paying customers, including government agencies, research organizations, businesses and even tourists. That would be followed by a series of bases on the moon beginning around 2025, a project estimated to cost about $12 billion.  Company founder Robert Bigelow said he intends to invest $300 million of his own funds, about $2.5 billion in hardware and services from Bigelow Aerospace and raise the rest from private investors.  The FAA’s decision “doesn’t mean that there’s ownership of the moon," Bigelow told Reuters. "It just means that somebody else isn’t licensed to land on top of you or land on top of where exploration and prospecting activities are going on, which may be quite a distance from the lunar station.”  Other companies could soon be testing rights to own what they bring back from the moon. Moon Express, another aspiring lunar transportation company, and also an XPrize contender, intends to return moon dust or rocks on its third mission. “The company does not see anything, including the Outer Space Treaty, as being a barrier to our initial operations on the moon," said Moon Express co-founder and president Bob Richards. That includes "the right to bring stuff off the moon and call it ours.”  (Reporting Irene Klotz; Editing by Joe White, Hank Gilman and Andrew Hay) http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/03/us-usa-moon-business-idUSKBN0L715F20150203

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