Adding to its multiple successes this year, SpaceX, owned by business tycoon Elon Musk, is on track to continue testing for its newest project, Starship. Starship’s latest flight test was SpaceX’s first attempt at a high altitude suborbital flight test with Starship SN8 (Starship number 8), the most complex Starship prototype so far, in Cameron County, Texas. After delaying the initial launch, the SpaceX team executed a successful test flight on December 9th, although the rocket exploded upon landing. Ten starship prototypes have been built, and two low-altitude flight tests have already been completed with SN5 and SN6. In the description of the test’s live stream, SpaceX representatives disclaimed that, “success is not measured by completion of specific objectives but rather how much [SpaceX] can learn about [Starship] as a whole.”
Starship is a revolutionary rocket; it is fully reusable and is designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship may even be able to assist in the clean-up of space junk, which can be a hazard to active satellites and spacecraft. According to SpaceX, “[Starship] will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.” Elon Musk hopes for Starship to be operational in a few years, with plans to send humans to Mars within the decade, whereas NASA plans to have astronauts on Mars by the 2030s at the earliest. At the International Mars Society Convention on October 16th, Musk said, “I think we have a fighting chance of making that second Mars transfer window.”; this window arises every 26 months and he is referencing the upcoming window in 2022 with the 2024 Mars launch opportunity. Musk could finance the operation by selling services from the Starlink constellation, a satellite internet constellation being constructed by SpaceX to provide internet access around the world. Additionally, the reusability of the rocket makes it much more cost-effective, as, according to Inverse’s Mike Brown, reusing boosters saves about 75% of the overall cost.
SpaceX’s ambitious initiatives come as a surprise following virtually no major space exploration efforts within the past decades. During the Asgardia Space Congress in Darmstadt, Jeffrey Manber, the CEO of Nanoracks, explained that this lack of progress since the first man landed on the Moon is an effect of humans’ inability to overcome their limiting mindsets. He described this phenomenon as, “a tragedy of the will of the species, not technical innovation.” According to Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, there has been a lack of visionary leadership, and therefore little willingness to dedicate resources to space exploration; it is hard to unify citizens in America and around the world under a common cause without a passionate spokesperson. Space companies such as NASA have struggled to overcome additional barriers such as insufficient funding, conflicting programs and goals, lack of continuity in objectives, and lack of public interest. University of Antwerp Professor of Physics Floris Wuyts blames the lack of progress on the risk of disconnect: “if you are on Mars and don’t even recognize Earth among the other stars, that feeling of being so lonely can have a great impact.”
Although Starship seems like the solution to spearheading space exploration progress, the spacecraft will likely face some challenges in the near future. According to space journalist Robert Zimmerman, government regulators in Texas and at the federal level may want to start slowing SpaceX down. The Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for overseeing commercial space launches, granted environmental impact approvals when SpaceX was planning to launch their family of Falcon rockets such as the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. According to The Hill, since SpaceX has begun testing Starship, environmental regulators have raised concerns about how launches and landing could affect the surrounding wildlife and ecosystems. Furthermore, The Hill’s Mark Whittington claimed that under President Biden, the government-SpaceX alignment may end, with the government re-assuming its position as an adversary to the commercial sector. Therefore, SpaceX will have to go through environmental impact tests again, which, according Zimmerman, could take years. Even though Biden has not put space exploration at the forefront of his policies, that won’t necessarily stop SpaceX from achieving its goals as a private company, although it may hinder NASA’s progress.
Another obstacle SpaceX faces in its quest for Mars is the pre-existing government regulations regarding space, which space lawyer Antonino Salmeri discusses in his op-ed, “No, Mars is Not a Free Planet, No Matter what SpaceX Says”. Embedded in SpaceX’s terms of service agreement for beta users of its Starlink satellite broadband service is Clause 9, which requires users to agree that Mars is a “free planet”. According to Salmeri, this means that, “disputes concerning Starlink services provided on Mars or while en route to the red planet via a SpaceX Starship — will be settled through self-regulation.” Clause 9 disregards the US’s international obligations under the Outer Space Treaty, which asserts that international law applies in outer space. Therefore, Mars cannot be left to self governing principles, because it is subject to the rule of law, and the treaty takes precedence over contractual terms of service. However, SpaceX does recognize in its ToS that international law may apply to the Moon although there are no grounds under international space law to make a distinction between the moon and other celestial bodies. This implies that SpaceX may be making a certain claim over Mars. Since SpaceX has plans to send humans to Mars, its refusal to conform to international laws puts its passengers in danger, since it puts their lives in the will of a private corporation.
In Salmeri’s opinion, refusing to comply with Government regulations is counterproductive, since it makes SpaceX an unreliable partner. This is especially detrimental to SpaceX’s progress since it relies on government contracts and caters to a government-heavy customer base. His overarching sentiment is that “there can be no doubts that applying international law on other celestial bodies is the best way to preserve the exploration and use of outer space as the province of all humankind.” Salmeri believes that “SpaceX’s defiance of international law should be taken very seriously and stopped now, before the company is able to push it to the point of establishing its private domain on Mars.”
Starship may be the long-awaited breakthrough that will launch us into the new age of space exploration; yet with an expansion of possibility for human space travel and settlement comes a new era of Earthly disputes. While SpaceX might seem like the most cost-effective and time-efficient solution for sending humans to Mars, the capabilities of an unregulated, private space company are distressing to fathom. SpaceX is rapidly accumulating power in our society, and it is hard to say whether it will choose to abuse that power through environmental means, space colonization efforts, or claims over celestial bodies. It is important to consider where to draw the line and whether government intervention is necessary when it comes to space travel, even if it disrupts our nation’s fundamental separation between the private and public sectors. Whatever the future may hold, we must begin to brace ourselves for the real possibility of humans on Mars.
