-Idea of a constitution for mars.

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Space X’s recent allegations to impose its own legal regime on the red planet.
The important vocabulary is sovereignty which the supreme power of an authority, self-
governing which is the ability of something to exercise all necessary functions without
intervention from an external authority which means here that earth laws wouldn’t apply to
mars. And finally, the word settlement is the act of going to live in a new place, so here this
word will be used to describe humans colonizing mars.

First of all, Space X is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services
company founded in 2002 by Elon musk who is also known for being the co-founder of paypal or
even the CEO of tesla. Space X recently made history by launching the first commercial flight into
orbit leading the way for new perspectives and hopes concerning space tourism.

Elon musk has always expressed a strong desire to send humans to mars as soon as possible
and even sending in a near future more than one million people over there to guaranty the
preservation of the human race.

But, recently, internet users found that Space X was proclaiming the independence of mars
In the terms of service section published in November 2020. The paragraph named
« Governing law » created controversy saying that « the parties recognize mars as a free
planet and that no earth based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian
activities. So, Space X apparently wants mars to be a free planet and Space X general counsel
revealed that he was even drafting a constitution for the red planet.

However, the problem is that there are international treaties that guide space law. The most
important one being the Outer Space Treaty that clearly indicates in its second article « that
outer space including the moon and other celestial bodies are free for exploration and do
not belong and cannot belong to any State ». In the third article it also says that use of outer
space must be in accordance with international law ». But Space X being a private company
doesn’t want to seem to apply to these rules and set its own legal regime even if the US
would most likely be responsible for Space X’s mars settlement.

So, following Space X’s recent allegations, Frans Von der dunk, a professor of space law,
recognizes in an internet Blog « Business Insider » the possibility of Space X imposing its own
laws on mars by comparing the situation to two historical examples of the world struggling
to accept a new nation to stand out which are Taiwan and The United states of America
declaring their independence in 1776. In theory, it wouldn’t be impossible to see one day
Elon Musk ruling the red planet but it would take a serious change to space law for it to
happen.

I chose this topic to give a larger perspective to law which is an element that doesn’t only
apply to our world but also to outer space and probably will apply to new planets in the
future. Mars is also making headlines at the moment with the new rover « Perseverance »
that just landed successfully. And, even if a settlement on Mars can seem a bit uncertain or
too distant in the future for now, it’s interesting to show how Earth is discussing how it
should be handled.
I think that this news shows that the space conquest is a high-stake political battle and that
every powerful country would like to dominate space exploration; but if Space X set their
own constitution on mars that would be against international space law resulting in new
tensions between countries leading to a possible conflict. These tensions have already
begun; ex-president Donald Trump during his mandate vowed to reassert the US as the
dominant space power which lead to Russian officials denouncing Trump’s actions as an
attempt to expropriate space territory. The current legal framework set towards space
regulation is holding but for how long, we might need to rewrite our understandings and
rules as humanity will expand deeper into space. In a perfect world, every nation should
work together to develop human exploration in space without private companies wanting to
follow their own rules to make maximum profit.