Over the past few years, achieving the long-term sustainability of space activities has become a central goal of manypolicy initiatives. Space sustainability is emerging as a core element of national policy and international initiatives.However, while more policymakers and stakeholders are recognizing the importance of space sustainability, nonehave developed an effective strategy, and accompanying policies, for accomplishing it.This paper examines scholarly research from the fields of economics and governance theory and evaluates itspotential to serve as a roadmap for a space sustainability strategy. In particular, it examines Nobel Prize WinnerElinor Ostrom's principles for sustainable governance of common-pool resources (CPR). These principles weredistilled from decades of studies on dozens of CPR situations. They capture the best practices of CPRs that havebeen used sustainably for decades or even centuries, thus avoiding the famous "Tragedy of the Commons," withoutbeing either completely privatized or controlled by a Leviathan entity.Ostrom's principles highlight the need for clear definitions of boundaries for the space domain, what entities areconsidered resource appropriators, rules tailored to fit the domain, who has a say in formulation of collective-choiceagreements and operational rules, monitoring of behavior and accountability, graduated penalties, conflict-resolutionmechanisms, and nested arrangements. When viewed in the context of the space domain, these principles highlightsome long-standing issues, such as the definition of where space begins and gaps in the existing liability regime; andemerging issues, such as the concept of shared or collaborative space situational awareness as a monitoring andverification mechanism and how best to include emerging and developing space actors in negotiations and decisionmaking.The paper concludes that Ostrom's principles highlight specific areas on which to focus initial space sustainabilityefforts and national and international policy on this subject. It also recommends further analysis into how best totranslate her principles to the space domain, where they may not be wholly applicable due to the unique nature ofspace, and how to evolve space governance institutions and mechanisms over time to best suit the uniqueenvironment of outer space.
展开▼
