 Actually, we all are operating from our respective homes, so sometimes there's a problem of connectivity also, sir. Okay. All right. What about your college is closed completely now? Yeah. It's closed, sir. It's closed. Okay. My college, yeah. My college is completely closed and we are operating from our home. And we are offering, yeah, we are offering online lectures. All right. All right. All right. And you are teaching space law now? No, no, international law, sir. Okay. Very good. And I would really, you know, want you to come someday to Nagaland. And we would really love to welcome you, sir. Have you ever been to this site, not just India? No. No, not unfortunately not. I want to see Kokota very much, I must say, I've never seen it and I haven't visited your college, so there will come a time, I'm certain, you know, that I will come to you as well. Oh, sure, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Okay. So, our H.O.D. site is there and we will start now. Dr. Ramu, do you want to start now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We are going to start now, just in a moment. I'm right here, I'm right here. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. We're waiting for you. Okay. So, let's begin. Shall I start? Sir, let me just give you your official introduction, you know, and then our H.O.D. will officially welcome you and then we will start, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much. I didn't know. Yes. Thank you, sir. All right. So, welcome all of you to this international webinar. Today's topic is going to be very interesting. Many years ago, the British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked, why did he want to climb it? He said, because it is there, well, space is there, and we are going to climb it. And the moon and the planets are there and the new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. Yes, the space is there. Humanity has been sharing a curiosity about the space since time immemorial. For thousands and thousands of years, we have been dreaming about the space. We have been thinking about the space. We have been attempting to reach out to the space, but finally we succeed. When Neil Armstrong set its foot on the moon, that was a moment of joy, satisfaction, happiness, but also was a moment of responsibility that mankind has encountered. So, that small step of mankind, that small step of Neil Armstrong taught us so many things. It was Yuri Gagarin. It was Neil Armstrong. And from Neil Armstrong till now, we are now dreaming to go to the Mars. We are going to beyond the Mars. We are entering into interstellar space and we are dreaming to go beyond. However, the one important factor that we need to consider is a legal aspect involved in the space exploration. As I often say to my students that nothing can be separated from law. Law will always be with you, right from your birth till your last breath. Every activity, every movement, every breath you take, every word you utter, every move you make, everything will be governed by the law. So the space exploration cannot be an exception at all. However, it's relatively a very new area. The law is still in the process of development and I was just discussing with Professor Hopi and therefore it is very important to have a discussion on this very important topic concerning the space law. I teach international law to my students at MA level, MA political science, as well as a sixth semester. And in this labors, there's a part which is dedicated to the space law also. And I'm sure my students will benefit it from this lecture. My friends will benefit it from the lecture and the most important aspect that I want to discuss with you is the possibility of ideas, the sharing of ideas. And this is how I see this particular lecture. So to talk about the space law and various aspects related to it, we have a very special guest today. He is Professor Dr. H. C. Stephen Hobay, who is the director of the Institute of Air, Space Law and Cyber Law, as well as co-director of the International Investment Law Centre Cologne. He is a member of various scientific associations. In fact, he is the vice president of the German Society of International Law. He is scientific in compasses three books on public international law, European law and space law, as well as editorship, as well as editorship and 350 articles on German public law, public international law, international investment law, air law, space law and cyber law. He teaches as a guest faculty at various universities in Europe, Africa and Asia. When it comes to the position that he has held, he is an International Institute of Space for Global Directors, International Academy of Astronautics, a full member, International Law Association, International Space Law Committee, European Space Law Board of Directors, International Chair of Farmers, International Community, German Society of International Law, IA German Hunch, member of advisory board, German Association of International Law, IA German Trans-Tracer, European Air Law Association, member of the Committee of Management, American Society of International Law, he is the member of it. He is going to discuss with us about the threats to the outer space environment, the dangers of space debris, legal consideration. This is a hotly debated topic at this point in time all over the world, and academia as well as in the policy sectors. More than 50 years of spaceflight since Sputnik 1 on 4th October 1957 have left many usable orbits full of junk. Parts of rockets and fuel as well as other particles threaten space objects tremendously since they fly at a very high velocity and can thus destroy even functional space objects like satellites. Shielding of space objects against space junk bigger than one centimeter is possible. Again this background, first the international legal order for human space activities will be looked into in order to find out whether there are provisions designed for the protection of outer space and the celestial bodies. Moreover, new legally non-binding so-called space debris mitigation guidelines will be presented that aim at protection in a however imperfect way. Finally the question will be asked whether and for whom there is a legal duty to clean up outer space from the space debris particle. So before I invite Professor Stephen Hobay to take a charge of the stage, I request head of the Department of Political Science Dr. Rimae Longman to kindly welcome sir. Dr. Rimae Longman please. Thank you Dr. Ani. I hope I am audible. Yes sir, you are audible. Okay. Thank you very much Dr. Ani and for giving me this time to welcome our special guests for today's lecture. Just to inform our honorable speaker, sir, we used to organize a series of webinars during this pandemic period and we touch upon various issues which are in fact emerging issues in nature. So today sir, we are indeed very happy to have you on our floor to talk about problems at the outer space. So Dr. Ani has already informed every one of us here in our college, especially the faculties of the Department of Political Science and we are happy to learn that such an international figure you yourself is coming over to our platform and going to deliver a special talk on a rare topic, many people hardly take up such a topic. So we are very fortunate in fact to talk about today's topic with you sir and we are really, we are looking forward to hearing from you and as Dr. Ani, our moderator has already mentioned, you know, as part of our syllabus, we talk about international, you know, we teach international law to our students and we are, you know, talking about, you know, laws of the seas and laws of the space and today this is a great, you know, opportunity for both the teachers and students of the department to learn together from you and therefore we are looking forward to hear from you and then I hope that towards the end of the session during the Q&A session, I believe that many of us will be, you know, asking to know, you know, more things from you and we are looking forward to get session as well. So thank you very much and I, on behalf of the entire, you know, Texas College political science family, I heartily welcome you once again on behalf of our department and on my own behalf. Thank you very much. Over to Ani. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Rime Longman. Sir, now I request you to kindly take a charge and request you to kindly share your thoughts with all of us. We are really eager to learn from you. Thank you so much. Can you see it? Yes, sir. Okay. Fine. Sorry. I had some problems. And you can hear me as well. Sure, sir. Loud and clear. Okay. Thank you very much for your very kind introduction, Mr. Head of Department and yourself. It is for me a very great pleasure. I would like to take this opportunity to, and an honor, of course, to have the opportunity to teach to you on the matter of space law. Myself, I'm, so to speak, a born international lawyer, but very soon I got, when writing my PhD thesis, I got into space law ever since. I'm fascinated by that subject. And the more the years go, the more movement we see. Because at the beginning it was just governments that were doing space, space affairs, space activities. And now we have more and more private activities like Space X with Elon Musk and other great radials who are doing things that may go into five, 10, 20, 30 years. You mentioned via the moon towards Mars or even beyond. And that may give and open unique chances for space transportation throughout the space. Nobody thinks about these things we talk a little bit about touristic activities. But it may go on and what people don't think about at the moment may become possible in the future. Let's think great. And let's see that this may in fact be an opportunity. But for this being possible, for this being developed in the future, we need a space environment that is free from toxic situations that we have at the moment. And my lecture today entitled protection of the environment of outer space, the danger of space debris legal considerations will deal with these problems and will deal with what mankind has done and what the legal profession has done so far in order to keep the environment and find the rules for keeping the environment proper. What we can, well, I may start with some things that are not familiar to all of you. We have five international agreements, five international agreements in outer space. That is international law, international treaties that currently determine human activities in outer space. The most important one being the outer space treaty of 1967. Then the registration convention, the rescue agreement, the liability convention and finally the moon agreement. And in these international agreements, you find more or less the important provisions that determine the respective behavior. But as we will see very soon, when international legislation came into place that started in the 1960s and then outer space treaties of 1967. This was before mankind really was concerned so much about environmental protection because this really started off in the 1970s. 1972 was the big stock on conference on the human environment and after that we had international environmental law. But not in 1967. So we have to diagnose that international space law kind of lacks specific provisions that deal with the cleaning of outer space. And we will see in this lecture what the international community has done instead in order to get along with this problem. We have a provision in article one of the outer space treaty, the first provision of the outer space treaty of 1967, which kind of says the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interest of all countries irrespective of the degree of economic or scientific development and shall be the problems of all mankind. This provision indeed does not specifically mention the clean environment. But with a little bit of interpretative creativity, you can say if outer space shall be the province of all mankind, it is considered as you can see in article two as no, it's not subject of national appropriation. No sovereignty is allowed. All states possess and have the property on outer space. It's an international common space and all countries, be they small or big, be they developing countries or be they highly developed countries, shall have a possibility to use it. And if you interpret this article one of the outer space treaties in its first paragraph in that way, you may say then you may have at least an intrinsic obligation to leave outer space clean and to take measures, first of all, to prevent outer space from being kind of made full of waste and secondly do something about existing waste and outer space. You know, therefore, I think with a little bit of interpretative creativity, you can actually say yes, indeed, outer space law deals with the general obligation to do something for the environment. But as you all know, because you're lawyers, this is a very general obligation. It's not a specific obligation that kind of, you know, obliges country X or Y or Z or enterprise X, Y, Z to actually do something in order to clean outer space. Therefore, it's nice to have but not really very helpful. Moreover, we have another agreement, the moon agreement of 1979, which in its article seven says in exploring and using the moon, states, parties shall take measures to prevent the disruption of the existing balance of its environment, whether by introducing adverse changes in their environment, by its harmful contamination through the introduction of extra environmental matter or otherwise. States, parties shall also take measures to avoid harmfully affecting the environment of the earth through the introduction of extra terrestrial matter or otherwise. So you see, this is a more precise language. But first of all, it just deals with the moon and other celestial bodies that means moon, Mars, Saturn and what you have on those planets around the earth or around the sun, to be more precise. And it kind of is also a bit falling short of a precise obligation. Article four paragraph one of the moon agreement reads, the exploration and use of the moon shall be the problems of all mankind and shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development. You regard shall be paid to the interest of present and future generations as well as to the need to promote higher standards of living and conditions of economic and social progress and development in accordance with the chapter of the United Nations. So you see very precisely that the moon agreement at least does something more concrete, but in my opinion is not concrete enough. Moreover, the moon agreement has been ratified only by 18 countries. This is not even a tenth of the international community and therefore the value of the moon agreement is rather limited. Then we have one article in the outer space treaty, namely article nine, which in its four sentences is something close to a provision on environmental protection. It's a very long provision, so I'll read any of the first sentences to you. In the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, states, parties to the treaty shall be guided by the principle of cooperation and mutual assistance and shall conduct all their activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies with due regard to the corresponding interests of all other states, parties to the treaty. So there shall be given due regard to the corresponding interests of all other states, parties to the treaty. This is important, but it is not very precise. What does that mean? You may use outer space. You may excave, let's say, minerals from Mars or from the moon. And what shall you do? You regard to the corresponding interests of all other countries. So you may say you shall be careful, but is this really precisely that what you shall do? I am not certain and I think for a lawyer this is not strict enough. Moreover, the second sentence, say, parties to the treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth, resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter and where necessary shall adopt appropriate measures for that purpose. This is very general. This is not very precise. We have the same dilemma as we had before also with regard to article one of the outer space treaty and the third and fourth sentence of article nine of the outer space treaty again the same. We have then some other conventions that do not directly deal with outer space but that may be introduced into space legislation through article three of the outer space treaty because article three of the outer space treaty allows to implant other provisions. The NMOD convention that is called the Environmental Modification Convention of 1976 says each state party to this convention undertakes not to engage in military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread long lasting or severe effects as the means of destruction, damage or injury to any other state party. I'm entirely unclear whether we can use it. What we can perhaps use, and this is now a proposition I have to make is that there are some customary law principles or some principles of international environmental law not specifically addressed to space but to be transferred to space via article three of the outer space treaty which reads as you can see in the bottom line states, parties to the treaty shall carry on activities in the exploration and use of outer space including the moon and other celestial bodies in accordance with international law including the charter of the United Nations, the interest of maintaining international peace and security and promoting international cooperation and understanding. This provision basically says and there is unanimity outer space law is part of general international law. Therefore provisions of general international law can be applied in outer space as well via article three of the outer space treaty. But they must inter alia then be principles of environmental customary international law. The principle of sustainable development for example, the principle of intergenerational equity, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, the principle of equitable use of natural resources. The most important principle is of course the polluter pays principle saying that the one that have caused a pollution must care for its eradication or pay for damages. It is however unclear international law how many of these general principles have already acquired the legal status of customary international law. So therefore we must be reluctant and I'm rather hesitant to accept those as really principles of customary international law. When and in what phases of space endeavors can now be there a danger and what is the typical danger for a space mission. The danger exists in that mankind now since 1957 Sputnik one has launched space objects like satellites into outer space. And for one reason or the other these space objects were not fabricated in a way that they were safe but there were little split offs of color, of some let's say antenna, parts of an antenna, part of metal. So and if this as such is something that you say well it just happens. Yes it just happens but there is an imminent danger and the danger is that the velocity in outer space is very very high. I come to the exact speed in a minute. It's very very high and through these relatively high velocities even small pieces are very dangerous weapons. If you can shoot with a small piece of space we say space debris. These are these rock pieces. Then you can destroy for example a satellite that can happen maybe in the pre-launch phase where you have to take care of the the the manufacturer particularly in the launch phase where you have toxic components and the post launch phase. So in all phases you can have that. Where can dangers exist they can exist on the earth in the atmosphere and outer space. Through normal operations a failure in international behavior can also be the let's say responsible for that if for example through the willful shooting the willful shooting of a weapon into outer space the destruction of a satellite these things are called anti-satellite weapons and they are deliberately done in order to destroy in order to destroy space objects in order to test these weapons that they are really safe. This scan and of course this then causes great, great parts of space debris millions of pieces of space debris. If you therefore look and compare the outer space environment 1957, 2005 I referred to the you know the ranking right-hand side 2018 and then the forecast for 2030 you see there is an imminent danger currently as you can see on the left-hand side we may have an estimated 150 million man-made small objects bigger than one millimeter an estimated 700,000 objects between 1 and 10 centimeters more than 21,000 objects bigger than 10 centimeters and if the impact velocity is 10 kilometers per second you must multiply this by 3,600 in order to get the hourly speed and then you have some ideas 36,000 kilometers per hour this means that there is a very, very high impact velocity we have approximately 1,000 active satellites here you can see for example what the deliberate destruction of a Chinese satellite to the anti-satellite weapon she has brought what acceleration of the number of debris later there was a collision between two satellites a non-functioning Iridium 33 satellite and a Cosmos satellite Cosmos 2251 that gave much less numbers of debris almost all pieces of debris in the geostationary orbit and in the low earth orbit the geostationary orbit is about 36,000 kilometers above sea level low earth orbit is several hundred kilometers above sea level they are catalogued by Russian surveillance and American surveillance it is pretty obvious where we have these things if we now see what's the risk the risk of collision in earth orbit is between debris pieces makes even more debris between manned functional objects and debris can be very dangerous between manned functional objects an impact velocity with a 1 millimeter object brings a degradation some object that is bigger than 1 centimeter brings a potentially catastrophic loss and between 1 and 10 centimeters it is these are so-called deadly objects so you can see the farmer with an old satellite or the international space station with a hole in the outside furniture so you see anything bigger than 1 centimeter is able to destroy even intact big satellites now this is the danger of what can we do can we do little? who has to do something? how can we do something? there is a first lecture learned because the situation is very difficult and the likelihood of collisions is relatively high it's the first and primary objective to try to prevent or minimize the risk of the development of debris one tries to make any generation of space debris illegal it is probably not but if there would be legislation saying try to avoid the generation of space debris then we might come at the end of the day to some prohibition of the generation of space debris is there an obligation to prevent or at least to minimize the generation of space debris? questionable is there an obligation to prevent or at least minimize the risk related to space debris? questionable is there an obligation to collision avoidance in particular exchange of data and maneuvering? probably yes what about space traffic management? do we have something? do we have space traffic routes and outer space? not really yet what about the legality and the duty of removal and recycling of space debris? what about an allocation of financial burden and the transfer of technology? questionable my immediate summary is and principle states are under the obligation to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction and control do not cause damage and to respect the environment of outer space all of areas beyond their jurisdiction and control such has been confirmed by the International Court of Justice to be part of customer international law and is also enlisted in Article 3 of the IOC draft articles on the prevention of transboundary harm from hazardous activities of 2001 these can be applied to outer space there is a due regard principle and duty to avoid harmful contamination as we can see in Article 9 there is a global public and community interest in outer space, Article 1 and 2 there is an interrelation with general international law by operation of Article 3 there is an absolute minimum that states obligation to prevent and minimize risk related to space debris that is the minimum obligation is states shall try to prevent and minimize risks related to space debris but there is on the other hand a lack of concrete binding rules reflecting the appropriate means of the exercise of due diligence during the conduct of space activities space debris is a complex multi-dimensional problem with safety concerns, security concerns economical interest, financial burdens and liability as well as ethics and it needs an operational framework now a very interesting thing started to develop there was a working group established by space agencies called that met together for the first time 27 years ago as inter-agency debris committee IADC so it's not a formal space conference it is an informal meeting in the inter-agency debris committee and this debris committee introduced the question of space debris on the agenda of the scientific and technical subcommittee there are two the outer space committee with two subcommittees the technical and the legal subcommittee in 2002 the IADC the inter-agency debris committee tabled for the first time space debris mitigation guidelines listen again space debris mitigation guidelines for the avoidance of space debris that was updated in 2007 we have still discussions going on mainly in the space debris in the scientific and technical subcommittee much less in the legal subcommittee because of course some countries are afraid of drawing concrete consequences from the fact that outer space and the most populated orbits are full of debris what do the space debris mitigation guidelines have as a context they define space debris as all man-made objects including fragments and elements that are in Earth orbit atmosphere that are non-functional non-functional small objects man-made space debris mitigation guidelines are applicable to missions planning in the operation of newly designed spacecraft and orbital stages so mission planning it is before a concrete satellite has been launched the scope is the UN guidelines do not outlaw a certain type of space activity the UN guidelines provide guidance on how to conduct space activities in principle in order to prevent or at least to minimize harmful byproducts of space activities and the UN guidelines do not address remediation space traffic management and global space situational awareness of particular importance is remediation that means the cleaning up from existing pieces of debris I come to this at the very end of my speech so we take that currently we have non-binding guidelines which I will present to you in a minute that ask humankind and days who use outer space in specific orbits to use it with space objects that are safe and that cannot split off and try to get it safely off the orbit after the end of its lifetime it is just the mitigation the avoidance of space it does not say something about the cleaning up and legally speaking these are two different coins of one balance now these are the seven space debris mitigation guidelines the first says limit the debris released during normal operations space systems should be designed not to release debris during normal operations to prevent the production of space debris even when undertaken space activities that are perfectly legal in general if this is not feasible the effect of any release of debris on outer space environment should be minimized if the release cannot be prevented in its entirety the effects are to be minimized so try to minimize the danger try to minimize the coming into existence of space debris full fragmentation then second minimize the potential for breakups during operational phases for example, get your satellite into another orbit make it on a passive stage in order to call this a grey-yard orbit that is kind of gives no danger of collision anymore third, limit the probability of accidental collisions in orbit so take it off the most frequented orbits for avoid intentional destruction and other harmful activities the intentional destruction is what I've just said for military users that you intentionally destroy your satellite in order to test your anti-satellite weapon shouldn't do that minimize potential for post-mission breakups resulting from stored energy limit the long-term presence of spacecraft and launch vehicle over the stages in the low Earth orbit region after the end of their mission and finally limit the long-term interference of spacecraft and launch vehicle over the stages with the geosynchronous Earth orbit region after the end of their mission so from the very early time of preparation of the mission through the fabrication of the space object until the very end of the mission in the grey-yard orbit or the sink and passing through the re-entry of the Earth atmosphere all parts of the space mission shall be planned in such a way as to avoid the generation of space debris. Is that possible? Yes, it is possible space debris mitigation is therefore possible try it with uttermost care what about the junk that is up there? First of all, there are methods to actually bring it down bring it down through, let's say, the tethering you see that in the first picture the tethering, the capture of debris using throw nets or harpoons contactless technologies of eye and eye and beaming and solid propulsion or sail-based de-orbiting You see, these three possibilities do exist and it could be a very worthwhile effort to concentrate your business on the cleaning up of specific orbits from existing pieces of debris but what about the legal situation what about the legal problem is there international obligation to actively remove the space debris? I think it's doubtful how is to be decided whether a space craft is of value? Third, is it allowed to remove objects of other space actors? You think, well, this space object, this satellite is of danger just take it that it is not mine then removal without consent is probably not allowed as Article 8 of the Outer Space Treaty says the consent of the launching state is needed what if the state or registry is unidentifiable a conflict between jurisdiction and freedom of use of others and the self-help in case of necessity what about the jurisdiction through the principle of sustainability so we have a lot of difficult legal questions that does not make it same at the moment whether we can have a beauty to remove existing space debris I summarize, the greatest problem for space travel which will augment in the future because of the privatization of certain space activities and give the opportunity of space transportation that means transportation into outer space transportation through outer space and transportation from outer space back to the earth this new era is likely to be endangered by tiny pieces of space debris the size is already pretty high but the outer space is also very high but the most important orbits we have a considerable number of debris and we have a debris of a certain size bigger than 1 centimeter that can be deadly for intact space objects like satellites therefore one must think of preventive measures on the one hand to fabricate space objects in a very safe and robust way in order to avoid the generation of space debris and we must have guidelines in order to avoid the generation of space debris avoid the collision and orbit in this fun satellite safely either in a gradient orbit or bring that back to the earth, to the earth atmosphere catch them with respective catching nets or harpoon them so there are technologies but it is unclear whether there is already a duty a legal duty for remediation this also depends very much on whether we can implement the polluter pays principle very difficult with regard to tiny pieces of space debris the computer, the polluter pays principle of the outer space and that brings me to the end of my presentation I hope that you got an impression of our problems and outer space and I am happy if you found this of some interest thank you very much indeed Thank you Professor Hovey for your enlightening presentation it was really a wonderful experience for all of us let me just inform you that this topic is completely new in this part of the world in this part of India as well we have been speaking about the environmental concerns on the earth but when it comes to the question of the space the situation entirely changes when it comes to the legal complications when it comes to the silence of the law when it comes to policy measures we somewhere feel that there is so much needs to be done on various fronts so couple of questions are waiting for us so first question is coming from Miss Priyanka Jaule and she is asking is there any possibility to measure damage done by space debris so that it will help to calculate liability under polluter pays principle so her question is revolving around polluter pays principle so what is your take on it Professor? well to measure damage yes I mean in case a satellite is dysfunction you can say it costs the renewal of the satellite and the satellite can cost you may have an idea between 7 and 15 million euro or let's say 15 million dollars so that's a lot of money small pieces can do have big effects and therefore we must come to something that is I think the most important point that I was not talking about today that we have traffic rules for outer space that everybody knows precisely were to go and were not to go thank you so much sir Miss Priyanka is asking another question as well and her second question is what regulations you think will be helpful to monitor private sector activities and make them accountable very sensitive question in case of government India's policy also to invite private sector players in the space industry so I think this question is very valid thank you very much for this very good question the outer space treaty itself in article 6 recognises the permissibility of private actors being active in outer space and using outer space but only under the condition that they are under the close of a launching state of a state that is that takes up responsibility therefore for any developed country who considers to be a space nation an international no a national space law is required where you have detailed the requirements for the launching of a settler particularly you need an insurance in order to prevent the country that can be held responsible after damage and to give this country the possibility to have recourse against your insurer so it is up to the country to regulate in its national space law these respective regulations and the requirements for private space launching sir just to further this discussion I have a question what is the absence of national legislation we know very well that what is the status of space law in India or any other country overall at international level so when it comes to the absence of policy measures when it comes to the absence of specific national law then how to level the responsibility SpaceX is really minted money they are exploring space they have done a number of launches also so how do we level the responsibility I am not sure about what the American government share a kind of legal relationship with them but is there any law present in America that could keep a check and balance on the activities of SpaceX with reference to the environmental protection of the space first of all the United States has also national space laws problem yes they do have and of course SpaceX gets a permission from the American launching authority FAA before launching these things the precise requirements I don't know rather than how far questions of environmental protection are taken into consideration I have no idea so I cannot answer that but in principle yes there is national space legislation and this is necessary because on the international space law it's always the launching state as you can see in the liability convention always the launching state that is liable for damage let us take the next question from the question is can you use of artificial intelligence and machine learning be generated to solve space debris problem use of artificial intelligence and machine learning be generated to solve space debris problem something to do with technology thank you very much for this very good question I believe yes on two accounts first of all in the process of manufacturing space objects like satellites I think artificial intelligence can kind of heighten the quality of the fabrication and secondly in the process of cleaning up orbits probably technology can help as well in order to discover pieces of space debris these are guesses the first is no guess the second is a guess but I think this could be in fact possible and we see really how much this very high tech branch is depending on the progress of technology thank you sir but do you have any idea about what is the present situation because especially when it comes to the question of relationship between artificial intelligence and machine learning it is a hypothesis I believe they have not yet reached to that stage in the technology because still the earth orbit the usable orbits is still stuffed with serious particles of space debris so I think it is a hypothesis but yes it is going to be helpful in the future but how do we see the threat in the present time what you must understand is the following technology will be ready probably with the help of artificial intelligence to clean up but the costs are so immense that nobody now private enterprise is interested at all to tackle this problem everybody does as this problem would not exist would not be pertinent would not be urgent it is urgent but nobody wants to touch it because it is so highly expensive so in my idea it would only be possible to later on come with some very innovative idea of founding a fund in which countries that launch satellites must pay in and that actually has the purpose of reimbursing from paying damages very possible very possible thank you let us move to the next question the question is coming from the United Nations guideline doesn't talk about cleaning up but what can we do to stop minimize future filling up of this kind of waste so this is a question from the internet connection could you briefly repeat the question I didn't get everything sir question is according to recent studies there is 200 tons of earth waste later on our moon most of them are waste of spacecrafts voyagers and even plastic bags as United Nations guideline doesn't talk about cleaning up but what can we do to stop minimize future filling up of this kind of waste especially in the context of our dreaming to conquest the Mars thank you thank you I mean the points the first of all the problem must be addressed secondly in the process of fabrication the mitigation guidelines ask for a better technology to fabricate space objects third of course it is an absolute no go and I'm not aware for example that any junk is thrown away from the International Space Station which is a permanent station and outer space so far so I think the the increasing technology will enable to be better with regard to the generation of space debris but it will take some time right sir thank you now in this context you know there is some different type of question has come from Mr. Ash Chaturvedi he's asking that in the era where we are moving towards space war does countries are really ready to talk about the cleanup on one hand we are speaking about using usable space orbits for military purposes we are thinking about the space law there have been talks going on so in this context of highly volatile international political environment is it really you know wise or are countries really ready to talk about space environment space cleanup what is your take on it sir thank you well whether it's wise or not I cannot judge I think it's simply necessary because everybody as article one of the outer space treaty and article two say everybody is proprietor of outer space and the celestial bodies and everybody and we know how useful for example the use of outer space for telecommunication purposes is we get TV from outer space we get some other mobile possibilities from outer space so if this is all not possible anymore that would be detrimental for mankind and therefore I think it's more a matter of logic and of money of course that we must continue with these efforts right sir thank you so much however when the question of you know the space environment comes another question comes about at the parallel level the other question might rise about the dreams of man to explore the space right on one hand it is technology on the other hand it is environmental concern and on the earth also right we have experience that you know sometimes people prefer to look away when the question of progress and development comes right so therefore you know sometimes it is very difficult to visualize that how wise a humanity could be you know legally as well as morally okay to think about the space environment but sir I hear the question again coming back to you know the legal aspects of a space environment you know as we know that space law is still standing on a very slippery ground right and there is no clear cut directions there is no clear cut principles laid down it comes to the principle of common heritage of mankind so don't you think that actually you know the country the space especially the traditional space fairing nations like say you know and then Russia and all those you know they should come together form a common minimum program form a policy to take an initiative to clean the space chunks because ultimately that is going to environmental concerns are there but that is going to affect our progress also you know so just want to know what you think about it all the organizations coming together and forming a common minimum program could you summarize the question again because it was kind of you know disturbed acoustically oh okay my question is that when we speak about the international space law right we all know that international space law is standing on a very slippery ground right there are no clear cut principles and even if there are clear cut principles you know expressed on the paper there is no proper implementations there is no proper accountability also and we all are okay those who are teaching international law practicing international law are very well aware of it now here when the question of international space environment concern comes right and as you rightly mentioned that the question of funding is there question of technology may not be there right then why not the traditional space fairing nations like Russia like the United States European Space Agency NASA they should come together and form a common minimum program to initiate the space cleaning drive why is it not possible thank you very much so far you have seen that there is already this club that came up with the space debris mitigation guidelines right sir but what is however this goes very slowly step by step the point really is that any part of remediation costs so much money and nobody wants to be the only country doing it and I believe also outer space is far away it is not so pressing for many people as our problems on earth would be so very unfortunately this is not a question of priority for the international community that is really sad to know I mean concerning the human ambitions I mean concerning the human ambitions it is really sad to observe sir it is very sad indeed sir I had a discussion I remember with Professor V.S. Mani when we were discussing about the prospects for India as a space fairing nation and I remember we had a long discussion on it and his concern was also the same that whether the Indian policy makers are willing to take the responsibility that is very important you are opening up the sector that is possible the private players will be entering right but what about the question of regulations absolutely absolutely is there a last question because I have another meeting to go to yes sir one last question one last question and we will conclude sir the question is from Dr. Rimay Longway has asked the HOD of political science sir we came to know about UFO sightings from time to time the question is UFO or space debris are these UFOs contributing to space junk problem now you see how would you take it you mean UFO yes it is UFO an identified object so he is hypothesizing that how does that contribute to the space jet problem very good question very good question well you know probably well we say the definition for space debris is that this thing is non-functional so you may ask yourself whether UFO is still functional and I think the common opinion is it is and that it brings even people from other stars other worlds to us so I would be hesitant to bring in to list UFOs under space debris I must say but I'm very grateful and I will give it further consideration thanks very much for that one thank you thank you so much sir there are no more questions and definitely psychological of the people the minds of people people would be more interested in talking about the space now thinking about the space and yes as Carl Sagan has mentioned our next destination is beyond the galaxy in the space our final home is not the earth we have to go beyond thank you sir thank you so much for your time for your knowledge and most importantly this is an area where people are not willing to talk because people have no idea about this part of the knowledge and our Nagaland University has been very kind to include international law in our syllabus in the sixth semester of political science as well as at the MA level international law and we have space law in the syllabus as well so our students have extremely grateful thank you very much for this invitation I've seen from this very very vivid discussion that there is a lot of interest and talent at your school so I'm looking forward to really to visit you we keep contact you can distribute my presentation if you're interested in that and you can write to me as well on my email address so I'm open and I'm very I think you do your step forward and I hope that the time comes when the COVID is kind of considerably less about us that I can visit when I come from Gujarat or Delhi, Gujarat and then I come to you in Nagaland and maybe again over space debris and maybe I have better news than today thank you very much sure sir thank you so much see you sir thank you we'll keep in touch thank you to all of you on behalf of department of political science that's of college for giving you a precious time thank you so much have a great evening ahead thank you so much all of you