Analyzing and improving the current space governance framework

Final presentation by Carson Ezell as part of the 2022 CERI Summer Research Fellowship.

The current international space governance framework has proven unsuitable for regulating emerging and future space activities. Rapid technological progress in the outer space domain has led to increasingly fragmented, less inclusive, and less effective international institutions. Adaptive governance is an effective model for addressing the technological and environmental uncertainties of the outer space domain. This paper breaks down governance challenges in the outer space domain into three separate eras ranging from the present era to the longterm future: the commercial space age, the birth of the space economy, and the era of transformative technologies. Although the commercial space age has demonstrated the weaknesses of the current governance system, the inability to manage significant risks associated with the transformative technologies era is still neglected within space policy. Improved governance mechanisms are proposed which would allow for inclusive, adaptive, and resilient institutions that are well-suited to address space policy issues from the present into the far future.