Previously SATLA spoke to PhD student and co-host of SATLA’s 2020 space law event The Final Frontier, Thomas Graham, about his research and pathway to working at the intersection of science, technology and the law. Now, we hear more from Tom as he discusses growth and funding allocations for AI and space—and the precautions we should be taking to ensure we protect life on Earth.

Q: An allocation of 2021–22 budget includes $117.8 million over the next four years to deliver Australia’s first Artificial Intelligence Action Plan, but little attention seems to be paid to use of AI in space as part of the Plan. Do you see the country’s reliance on AI in space growing, whether for defence or discovery?

TG: Yes. Put bluntly the use of AI and machine learning based technologies is already a part of many aspects of our digital lives and is creeping into new facets of society every day. From algorithms running our social media to google maps route planning, it’s embedded in services we use without thinking.

The Australian space industry is growing rapidly, and as it expands its operations will grow and capabilities become more sophisticated. As with any other industry, organisations in the space industry will seek to make their operations as efficient as possible. Artificial intelligence systems provide the means to do this through automating complicated processes that would otherwise require human input. This could take the form of AI systems to automate rover exploration on the Moon or Mars, which would need to be able to find their own way around and plan their own routes without human input in order to efficiently traverse foreign terrain. These issues are even more pertinent to missions such as deep space probes aiming to explore beyond our solar system because the sheer distance between them and Earth will make it impossible for manual control of the probes, and so automated, intelligent protocols will be required.

Even without futuristic examples, AI can and will be used to provide any competitive advantage possible to organisations both within the civil domain and the national security domain. Using AI to automate operations and increase efficiency is a natural progression given that the tools are becoming available, and so it is less a question of if AI will be utilised, but rather how. We need to make sure that when AI systems are deployed, that they have regulatory oversight to ensure they are made using best practices and can benefit their creators without prejudicing the wider Australian or global community’s interests.

Q:  Significant funding for space initiatives has been announced in the latest budget, but this doesn’t necessarily follow through to individuals or small organisations interested in launching their own satellites or technology. Will the regulatory framework you’re designing address individual, as well as commercial and government, use of space?

TG: I intend for the framework I design to address as many aspects and uses of space as possible. I want it to be a framework that can benefit everyone, providing rights and redress for individuals, guidance and clarity for businesses, and a clear structure for government to strike the right balance between individual interests and pushing forward industry and national interests.

The exact balance I end up striking is still up in the air. I’m only at the start of my PhD project and so there’s a lot of research, analysis and work ahead of me before I can say with certainty the exact form it will all take.

Q: What mechanisms are currently in place to regulate space activity and ensure protection from negative side effects of human activity, such as space debris?

TG: At the international level, there are a series of UN based space treaties facilitated through the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). These treaties, which were drafted during the original space race back in the 60s and 70s, set out broad terms of how the international community is meant to conduct activities in space. Due to their age, these treaties don’t consider many modern issues in the space domain such as the privatisation of the space industry, or space debris. Even though these treaties aren’t completely modern, and don’t anticipate particular issues, the broad principles they set out form a sort of ‘constitution’ that underpins the wider international regulatory framework governing global space activities.

More recently, many voluntary guidelines have been put forward to give more detail to the standards of conduct expected of space actors. These measures have become the new norm as it has been much easier to get States to agree and endorse non-binding measures. Such guidelines are often much newer, and often are made with specific issues in mind such as space debris.

There are many guidelines published by different organisations addressing space debris. The most significant are the IADC guidelines, and the subsequent UN guidelines (made by COPUOS and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly). These guidelines are fairly universally accepted, but are just guidelines, not formal treaties, and so they are not enforceable and have limited normative weight.

At the domestic level, States are slowly developing more sophisticated regulatory regimes to govern space activities by groups within their jurisdictions that reflect their international law obligations. However most domestic regimes are still relatively underdeveloped compared to the issues the space industry is beginning to grapple with, and so more work needs to be done.

Q: How is Australia pursuing economic growth and its desire to see the state as a 'globally recognised, high-quality, sustainable and innovative manufacturing nation' through space activity?

TG: Australia has a long history in the space sector, stretching back to the original space race. We helped the American effort to reach the moon by receiving the original images from the Apollo 11 mission, when humankind first set foot on the moon. Our support for other nations in space continues even now, where Australia has provided support for other nations space missions, such as Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid sampling mission, by coordinating the landing of the samples in the Woomera Test Range before their return to Japan. As such Australia has a long history of working with major space powers and utilising our status as a developed nation to support complex missions.

The difference is that now, with the privatisation of space and the rise of many ‘space start-ups’, Australia is now aiming to develop its own sovereign capabilities and become a major player in the space sector, rather than just a ‘supporting party’. This effort is being coordinated through the Australian Space Agency (ASA), whose aim is to increase the number of jobs and amount of money in the space sector to benefit the entire Australian economy and secure our national interests. Australia is well placed to do this because we have a highly educated and highly skilled population, with the capacity for many space related organisations to develop sophisticated space infrastructure for Australia.

The ASA is serving as a central co-ordinating hub for a web of start-ups and space businesses to work together and hook into international supply chains (such as NASA supply chains) to get money flowing into our space sector. This commercial focus will ensure Australian businesses are well networked and resourced to develop their capacities. This can already be seen with the ongoing development of the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex by Southern Launch, giving Australia a world leading rocket-launching facility. Together, Australia’s high standard of education, expertise and regulation ensures that although we are currently a ‘supporting’ space player, we operate to a high standard and are able to work with the biggest players around the world, and are ready to take advantage of the growing global space industry going forward.

Q: There’s been concern raised by writers including Ceridwen Dovey and Marina Benjamin that the excitement of space travel is overtaking consideration of precautionary measures for environmental and social concerns. Do you think this is a concern we need to pay more attention to, particularly in commercial pursuits?

TG: These concerns are very valid. Humans live on Earth, and the few that aren’t on Earth at any given moment (such as ISS astronauts) are only supported by immense resources and logistical coordination from experts around the world. The technology to completely depart Earth and live independently of it is still far beyond us, in the realm of science fiction, and so it doesn’t make sense to ignore ‘Earthly’ concerns.

Equally though, excitement for the space industry is a good thing because it brings attention and funding that is needed to contribute to important capacity building that will ultimately contribute to solutions to the environmental and social problems we face on Earth. As long as the development of the space industry is underpinned by thoughtful regulatory guidance to ward against negative consequences, excitement for space travel can be balanced with Earth-based concerns.

A great series to watch that touches on this topic is ‘Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space’, which follows the first all civilian crew as they are selected, trained and launched into space. The series just premiered on Netflix, and goes into the SpaceX mission and its aims. As a part of this series, Elon Musk himself was asked this question and he responded saying “I think we should spend the vast majority of our resources solving problems on Earth, […] like 99% plus of our […] economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth, but I think, maybe, something like 1% or less than 1% could be applied to extending life beyond Earth.” To me this sounds reasonable because it’s always best not have all of your eggs in one basket, even if it is an incredibly important basket.

Learn more about space law with our recording of SATLA x Melbourne Space Law Program’s 2020 event The Final Frontier and Part 1 of this interview. Stay updated on further news and opportunities in science and technology law by becoming a SATLA member at satla.net/join and by following SATLA on Facebook or LinkedIn.