Satellite power system (SPS) international agreements

Technical Report · Sun Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6453871· OSTI ID:6453871

Christol, C. Q.

This White Paper examines present and future plans for a SPS in a political-legal context. Since a SPS will have international ramifications, the analysis focuses on international political and legal matters. A number of existing international organizations, having both scientific and technical competence and a political-legal orientation, are involved in the governance of space objects orbiting at geostationary heights. The public international institutions include the United Nations, and in particular, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and the International Telecommunication Union. A private international institution with a scientific focus is the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). The United Nations has been instrumental in the preparation of two international agreements that bear directly on the uses of outer space, the Moon and celestial bodies (the space environment) by a SPS. These are the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and other Celestial Bodies and the 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects. Since the 1967 Treaty preserves the right to the free use of the space environment, States and others having the capacity to do so are entitled to make use of geostationary orbital positions. However, a formal definition/delimitation of sovereign airspace and non-sovereign space environment does not exist. Consequently, in 1976 eight equatorial States issued the Bogota Declaration. In this they asserted that the spatial area superjacent to their territorial areas was airspace and subject to their sovereignty. The space-resource States and others have rejected this claim.

• Research Organization: PRC Energy Analysis Co., McLean, VA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6453871
• Report Number(s): HCP/R4024-08
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140400 -- Solar Energy-- Environmental Aspects
140600* -- Solar Energy-- Photovoltaic Power Systems
140700 -- Solar Thermal Power Systems
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
299001 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Solar-- (1989-)
AGREEMENTS
COMMUNICATIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
LAWS
LEGAL ASPECTS
LUNAR MATERIALS
MICROWAVE POWER TRANSMISSION
MOON
ORBITAL SOLAR POWER PLANTS
POWER PLANTS
POWER TRANSMISSION
RADIATION EFFECTS
RADIATIONS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
SATELLITES
SOLAR POWER PLANTS
SPACE