Life in outer space and our responsibilities

Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne

COMMON HERITAGE: Humanity’s foray into the solar system brings out the ethical issue of what we should do if life is found in outer space. Do we send more probes to further investigate and do we have a responsibility to protect that life and allow it to develop naturally?

If robotic probes definitively find life, should we erect a “do not disturb sign” and refrain from sending further probes? Then again, what if we were to find intelligent life forms closer to the human form and not mere vegetation? Could we exercise control over the welfare of such life and who would claim that control?

Space law is grounded on the principle that outer space is the common heritage of mankind and that no State or individual can therefore claim rights in rem to any portion of outer space. Air law, on the other hand, is firmly entrenched in the principle of sovereignty of States, so that a State may lay claims to rights over the airspace above its territory.

This essentially means that while the implementation of air law is heavily influenced by municipal law, space law is solely grounded on legal principles binding on the community of nations. Principles of public international law therefore play an exclusive part in the application of space law principles.

Extraterrestrial life is life originating outside of the Earth. Its existence remains hypothetical; there is no evidence of extraterrestrial life that has been widely accepted by the scientific community.

Most scientists believe that if extraterrestrial life exists, its emergence occurred independently, in different places in the universe. An alternative hypothesis is panspermia which suggests that life might emerge in one location and then spread between habitable planets.

These two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. The study and theorization of extraterrestrial life is known as astrobiology, exobiology or xenobiology.

Intelligent life

American geneticist Joshua Lederberg introduced to the world the science of exobiology (or astrobiology) - a branch of biology which deals with the search for extraterrestrial life, especially intelligent life, outside the solar system.

Although remote astronomical observations of a planet or other celestial body provide information about its physical environment, the determination of the presence of life on these bodies is more difficult.

Exobiological techniques are designed to detect life forms, artefacts produced by intelligent life, waste produces of metabolic reactions, remnants of former life, prebiological molecules that may reflect early evolutionary stages or substances such as carbon or combination of Hydrogen and Oxygen forming water that are necessary for the sustenance of life as it is experienced on Earth.

In 1948 the U.S. Air Force commenced maintaining a file of reports relating to extraterrestrial phenomena called Project Blue Book. In July 1952, the U.S. government established a panel of scientists including engineers, meteorologists, physicists and an astronomer to investigate a series of radar detection coincident with visual sightings near the national airport in Washington D.C. The panel was organized by the Central Intelligence Agency, which underscores the thrust of public and government concern and interest at the time.

The concern was based on U.S. military activities and intelligence and that its report was originally classified Secret.

Later declassified, the report revealed that 90 per cent of UFO sightings could be readily identified with astronomical and meteorological phenomena (e.g. bright planets, meteors, auroras, ion clouds) or with aircraft, birds, balloons, searchlights, hot gases, and other phenomena, sometimes complicated by unusual meteorological conditions.

The publicity given to early sightings in the press undoubtedly helped stimulate further sightings not only in the U.S. but also in Western Europe, the Soviet Union, Australia, and elsewhere. A second panel established in February 1966 reached conclusions similar to those of its predecessor.

This left a number of sightings admittedly unexplained, and in the mid-1960s a few scientists and engineers, notably James E. McDonald, a University of Arizona meteorologist, and J. Allen Hynek, a Northwestern University astronomer, concluded that a small percentage of the most reliable UFO reports gave definite indications of the presence of extraterrestrial visitors.

Options

This sensational hypothesis, promoted in newspaper and magazine articles, met with prompt resistance from other scientists.

The continuing controversy led in 1968 to the sponsorship by the U.S. Air Force of a study at the University of Colorado under the direction of E.U. Condon, a noted physicist. The Condon Report, “A Scientific Study of UFO’s” was reviewed by a special committee of the National Academy of Sciences and released in early 1969.

A total of 37 scientists wrote chapters or parts of chapters for the report, which covered investigations of 59 UFO sightings in detail, analyzed public-opinion polls and reviewed the capabilities of radar and photography. Condon’s own “Conclusions and Recommendations” firmly rejected ETH - the extraterrestrial hypothesis - and declared that no further investigation was needed.

This left a wide variety of opinions on UFO’s. A large fraction of the U.S. public, and a few scientists and engineers, continued to support ETH.

A middle group of scientists felt that the possibility of extraterrestrial visitation, however slight, justified continued investigation, and still another group favoured continuing investigation on the grounds that UFO reports are useful in sociopsychological studies.

These varying views and attitudes were expressed at a symposium held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in December 1969. Several years later, in 1973, a group of U.S. scientists organized the Center for UFO Studies in Northfield, Ill., to conduct further work.

SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is the collective name for a number of organised efforts to detect extra terrestrial life.

A number of efforts with SETI in the project name have been organised, including projects funded by the United States Government. The generic approach of SETI projects is to survey the sky to detect the existence of transmissions from a civilisation on a distant planet, an approach widely endorsed by the scientific community as hard science.

What should we do if we find life in outer space?

What are we entitled to do if we found extra terrestrial life?” Firstly, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 in Article II provides that outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies is not subject to national appropriation by claim or sovereignty by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.

Furthermore, the Treaty, in Article III requires that States parties to the Treaty shall carry on activities in the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, according to the principles of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, in the interest of maintaining international peace and security and promoting international cooperation and understanding.

‘Use of force’

There is no known principle or pronouncement of law which mentions “extraterrestrial intelligence”. Therefore, no existing norm of international law prohibits social intercourse in outer space between humans and extraterrestrial beings (if such were to exist). The only prohibition which will obtain at international law would be if such intercourse leads to the “non peaceful” use of outer space by States.

It is incontrovertible that the absence of peaceful use of outer space (when states indulge in activities in outer space) would inevitably mean warlike or aggressive use of outer space. Accordingly, such action would perforce form “use of force” by such states on other states or persons affected by these actions.

In a purely forensic sense, the fundamental postulate of space law, which devolves upon States the responsibility to explore and use outer space for peaceful purposes is pivotal to the conjecture of extra terrestrial intelligence.

To start with, there were two United Nations General Assembly resolutions on the subject. Resolution 49/34 of 1994, which inter alia covered international co-operation in the peaceful uses of outer space, links the importance of international co-operation in developing the rule of law, including the relevant norms of space law and their important role in international co-operation for the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes.

The operative criterion for the adoption of the above aims, as used by the Resolution, lies in the endorsement that they should be achieved through international co-operation in the development of the role of law. The Resolution therefore brings to bear the ineluctable and compelling need for the application of existing principles of international law as a means towards this end.

The General Assembly of the United Nations, on February 5, 1996, adopted Resolution 56/27 relating to international co-operation in the peaceful uses of outer space. This resolution broadly reaffirmed the principles of Resolution 49/34.

Having considered the Report of UNCOPUOS on the work of its thirty-eighth session, the General Assembly endorsed the Committee’s recommendation that the Committee should, through its Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee, inter alia, consider the use of nuclear power sources in outer space and questions relating to space transportation systems and their implications for future activities in space.

Matters relating to life sciences, space medicine and astronomy were some of the areas that were focused on for further consideration in the Resolution.

Peaceful use

On December 14, 2006, at its 79th Plenary Session, The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 61/111 on international co-operation in the peaceful uses of outer space. This Resolution requests inter alia UNCOPUOS to consider, as a matter of priority ways and means of maintaining outer space for peaceful purposes.

Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty provides in part that State Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, whether such activities are carried out by governmental agencies or non-governmental agencies.

This provision clearly introduces the notion of strict liability erga omnes to the application of the jus cogens principle relating to outer space activities of States and could be considered applicable in instances where States hold out to the international community as providers of technology achieved and used by them in outer space, which is used for purposes of air navigation.

Article VI further requires that the activities of non-governmental entities in outer space shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty, thus ensuring that the State whose nationality the entity bears would be vicariously answerable for the activities of that organization, thereby imputing liability to the State concerned.

The Moon Agreement of 1979 provides that in the exploration and use of the moon, States Parties shall take measures inter alia to avoid harmfully affecting the environment of the Earth through the introduction of extra terrestrial matter or otherwise. In the field of international space law, two clearly connected terms have been used: liability and responsibility.

Although “responsibility” has not been cohesively interpreted in any legal treaty relating to outer space, “liability” occurs in the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, March 29, 1972 (Liability Convention) and is sufficiently clear therein.

This, however, does not mean that State responsibility is not relevant to the obligations of States law as, in international relations, the invasion of a right or other legal interest of one subject of the law by another inevitably creates legal responsibility.

At present, one can regard responsibility as a general principle of international law, a concomitant of substantive rules and of the supposition that acts and omissions may be categorized as illegal by reference to the rules establishing rights and duties.

Shortly, the law of responsibility is concerned with the incidence and consequence of illegal acts, and particularly the payment of compensation for loss caused. Therefore, as discussed, both treaty law and general principles of international law on the subject of space law make the two elements of liability and responsibility a means to an end - that of awarding compensation to an aggrieved State or other subject under the law.

In view of the many legal issues that may arise, the primary purpose of a regulatory body which sets standards on State liability would be to carefully consider the subtleties of responsibility and liability and explore their consequences on States and others involved as they apply to the overall concept of the status of a State as a user of space technology which may cause harm or injury to the latter.

Finally, we have to be mindful of a few fundamental truths. Firstly, if we come across any form of life in outer space it will be the concern of all humankind. Second, any treatment of such life, irrespective of the fact that it is found in outer space, should be according to the principles of international law and the United Nations Charter. .

Within these parameters, yes, we could send more probes to investigate further. Yes, we could even put up a “do not disturb sign”. But whatever we do, we are bound by the principles of responsibility and international accountability to treat life in outer space with the same dignity accorded to life on Earth.

The writer is the Coordinator, Air Transport Programmes International Civil Aviation Organisation, he is also a member of the Space Law Committee of the International Law Association Montreal, Canada.

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