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\u201cFor services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith at the time of the Martian settlement.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If this language is taken literally Starlink users are agree that Mars is a \u201cfree planet\u201d and that any disputes concerning Starlink services provided on Mars, or while travelling to Mars on a SpaceX Starship will be settled through self regulation.[3]<\/a> This adherence to a set of \u201cself governing principles\u201d attempts to sidestep international law.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Elon Must has plans to create a self-sustaining city on Mars that is entirely self-sufficient and not dependent on links to Earth for its survival.[5]<\/a> Any future colony on Mars created by SpaceX would use constellations of Starlink satellites orbiting the planet to provide internet connectivity to the colonists and machinery on the planet\u2019s surface.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n While states have no sovereignty on Mars, this does not leave Mars a \u201cfree planet\u201d up for grabs by SpaceX, as it also has no sovereignty.[7]<\/a> International law deals with this issue through Articles II, VI, and VIII of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST).[8]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Article II states that outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.[9]<\/a> Article VI states that nation states bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, which includes Mars, and includes activities conducted by \u201cnon-governmental entities\u201d.[10]<\/a> Article VIII states that all parties on whose registry an object launched into outer space is carried shall retain jurisdiction and control over such object, and over any personnel thereof, while in outer space or on a celestial body.[11]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Essentially, each country is responsible for all objects and people they send into space and each country also retains jurisdiction over those objects and people when they go into space.[12]<\/a> The Unites States thus bears the fault-based liability for any injury or damage that SpaceX\u2019s space bound objects cause to other states\u2019 persons or property as they are SpaceX\u2019s launch state.[13]<\/a> Additionally, the United States is the sole state that retains jurisdiction and control over SpaceX objects as it is SpaceX\u2019s state of registry.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n From a legal viewpoint, Clause 9 of Starlink\u2019s terms of service should be regarded as void.[15]<\/a> Declaring that Mars is a \u201cfree planet\u201d and refusing any Earth-based authority over SpaceX\u2019s activities on Mars conflicts with the international obligations of the United States under the Outer Space Treaty, which takes precedence over any contractual terms of services presented by Starlink to its customers.[16]<\/a> As a company SpaceX can declare anything that it wants; what remains to be seen is how the nations of the world will react to its declarations as it moves forward with its goal to colonize Mars.[17]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Mike Brown, SPACEX MARS CITY: LEGAL EXPERTS RESPOND TO \u2018GIBBERISH\u2019 FREE PLANET CLAIM<\/em>, Inverse (Nov. 3, 2020 2:00 PM), https:\/\/www.inverse.com\/innovation\/spacex-mars-city-legal.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Antonio Salmeri, No, Mars is not a free planet, no matter what SpaceX says<\/em>, space news (Dec. 5, 2020), https:\/\/spacenews.com\/op-ed-no-mars-is-not-a-free-planet-no-matter-what-spacex-says\/.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> See<\/em> Anthony Cuthbertson, ELON MUSK\u2019S SPACEX WILL \u2018MAKE ITS OWN LAWS ON MARS\u2019<\/em>, INDEPENDENT (Oct. 28, 2020), https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/gadgets-and-tech\/elon-musk-spacex-mars-laws-starlink-b1396023.html.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Brown, supra<\/em> note 1.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> See<\/em> Cristian van Eijk, Sorry, Elon: Mars is not a legal vacuum \u2013 and it\u2019s not yours either<\/em>, V\u00f6lkerrechtsblog (Nov. 5, 2020), https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/sorry-elon-mars-is-not-a-legal-vacuum-and-its-not-yours-either\/.<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Brown, supra<\/em> note 1.<\/p>\n [12]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n [13]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n [14]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n [15]<\/a> Salmeri, supra<\/em> note 2<\/p>\n [16]<\/a> See<\/em> id<\/em>.<\/p>\n [17]<\/a> See<\/em> Brown, supra<\/em> note 1.<\/p>\n Image Source:\u00a0“Mars”<\/a> by Kevin M. Gill<\/a> is licensed under CC BY 2.0<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By\u00a0Jeffrey Phaup Customers who signed up for a beta test of SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellite internet service have had to agree, under section nine of the services terms and conditions, that Mars is a \u201cfree planet\u201d.[1] The provision states: \u201cFor services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4744,"featured_media":9154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51366],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/files\/2021\/03\/Mars.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paMHOZ-2nC","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9152"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9156,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9152\/revisions\/9156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jolt.richmond.edu\/files\/2021\/03\/Mars-300x169.jpg\")
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