A NEW INDEMNIFICATION POLICY SPACECRAFT THAT RESCUE ASTRONAUTS IN NEED

摘要

The Rescue Agreement has been the least controversial and discussed of all the space law treaties, partly because of its obvious humanitarian instincts, partly because there has never been a situation where it was likely to be invoked, due to the rare and expensive nature of manned space flight. As a result, problems with the definitions of certain words, like "astronaut," which would have caused enormous problems in a more heavily used agreement, have gone relatively unnoticed. However, with the rise of commercial space travel, both tourism and for other business reasons, the Rescue Agreement deserves to be examined again. While some might argue whether tourists are "astronauts" under the treaty, this is a minor point. The most important points left undiscussed by the treaty is the responsibility for rescuing spacecraft in need, and indemnifying would-be rescuers. Because of the expensive and unusual circumstances of space travel, if a spacecraft was in trouble and another spacecraft went to the rescue, that might cause the forced end of the mission of the rescuing spacecraft, and the possible loss of billions of dollars. The paper will propose a system that will both ensure that spacecraft in trouble with be rescued, and briefly propose an insurance system for those spacecraft that rescue spacecraft in need, so that their expensive activities will not be in vain.