Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson are all competing to establish their presence in space. But what rights and obligations does that entail?
Even though it’s not clear what the rules are, $460 billion The space industry is growing rapidly.
Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded by Branson, said on Thursday, first commercial space flight This month, it will join Bezos’ Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX to send ticketed passengers into space. But the travel industry is just an emerging part of an industry largely supported by US and international government contracts. This segment includes companies in the satellite and communications sectors. Solar powermanufacturing and even mining. One, the Orbital Assembly, luxury extraterrestrial hotel By 2025.
Citigroup analyst predicts space business will reach $1 trillion in revenue by 2040.
All of these activities raise legal issues.
In theory, the universe belongs to everyone. In 1967, as the United States and the Soviet Union were building up their nuclear arsenals, the United Nations signed a treaty banning any nation from claiming space territory. “We didn’t want to bring the Cold War into space,” Michelle Hanlon, co-director of the University of Mississippi Aerospace Law Program, told Dealbook.
Since then, the United Nations Space Commission has created four more. Convention and Five Principles It covers areas such as arms control and liability for damage caused by space objects. Both are premised on the idea that space “should be focused on promoting international cooperation and devoted to promoting the well-being of all nations and humankind.”
That perspective is about to collide with reality, Kurt Blake, a space attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and former CEO of a space startup, said: “Humanity has done a terrible job of regulating public interests such as the ocean and the atmosphere,” he said. “Will we be able to take better care of the moon?”
One upcoming experiment is a race between China and the United States to reach the lunar poles to mine water. produce fuel in space. Little is understood what will happen when both of them get there.
“Will they live on separate sides or will they be scattered around the bases?” Mr. Hanlon asked. “I don’t know because of the regulatory gap.”
another potential conflict is erupting 170 million pieces of rubble Kind of like an abandoned satellite in Earth’s orbit, known asspace junkBecause their accumulation makes exploration more difficult and dangerous. No one owns the space, so it’s not always clear whose responsibility it is to clean it. In September, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a rule mandating companies: destroy non-functioning satellites Within 5 years Decreased from 25 years.
Lawyers are grappling with such issues this week at gatherings such as the Hague Space Diplomacy Symposium at Leiden University in the Netherlands, highlighting cooperation amid heightened geopolitical tensions and competition. .
The US government intentionally leaves some holes. In 2004, Congress imposed a moratorium on safety regulations for commercial space launches, effectively a free pass.study period‘ is scheduled to expire in October. It lasted so long because there wasn’t enough development on which to base the new rules. In April, a RAND Corporation report recommended no further extensions, and the Federal Aviation Administration plans further oversight.
Business leaders recognize the need for rules, but warn against creating so many regulations that they push innovation abroad. And futurists naturally have a long-term, expansive view. Many fear that we will exploit the resources of the universe before we can, as Hanlon puts it, “access to the infinity of the universe.”
“We just need to keep it going for 200 years,” she said. — Efrat Livni
what is going on here
The Fed takes a breather. At Wednesday’s meeting, the central bank kept rates unchanged for the first time in more than a year. But officials have suggested that interest rates could rise further in 2023 as inflation remains “well above” the Federal Reserve’s target.
JP Morgan settles. the bank is $290 million potential deal Victims of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have claimed that banks overlooked red flags in his activity because they rated him as a wealthy customer. JPMorgan Chase still faces related litigation by the U.S. Virgin Islands government.
Bill Gates meets with Xi Jinping in Beijing. The Microsoft co-founder is one of the first prominent US business leaders to meet with Chinese leaders since the pandemic began. The talks between the two sides took place ahead of Secretary of State Anthony J. Brinken’s visit to China.
Bud Slight. Modelo Especial replaced Bud Light as a bestseller in America. Following consumer boycotts of promotional posts by transgender influencers. The debate highlights the challenges brands and retailers such as Adidas and Target face in marketing to LGBTQ consumers in a polarized political environment.
Michael Jordan is making big profits. Investors Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall reported: bought his majority stake Traded to the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association for $3 billion. Jordan bought the team for $275 million in 2010, retaining a minority stake.
Companies May Not Know When Employees Will Use AI
Companies like Accenture, PwC and Morgan Stanley have announced major initiatives to get their employees to use generative AI tools like chatbots and image generators. However, even companies that do not have these tools in place may have many employees using them and may not even mention it.
According to a survey of 4,491 white-collar workers According to consulting firm Oliver Wyman, 39% of people using generative AI tools said they had used them without their employer’s knowledge in the past three months.
When employees use these tools without training, they run risks such as sharing private company data or not understanding that AI tools can produce inaccurate work. . (See: Attorneys who ended up citing hoaxed court cases in legal briefs.)
But it could be possible. McKinsey estimated in a report this week that generative AI could add $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion to the global economy. The study explored 63 use cases for generative AI across 850 occupations and found that 60-70% of all his work tasks could be automated with currently available technology.
“The interest among employees, especially among younger generations, is likely higher than for many managers,” Ana Creacic, chief operating officer at Oliver Wyman think tank, told Dealbook in an email. said. “Some organizations are ahead and some are catching up, but it takes time for best practices to evolve across industries,” she said.
9.7 percent
— How much did Swedish consumer prices rise last month?Is there one potential factor in her?Beyoncé kicked off her world tour in Stockholm and her fans flocked to the city to see the singer pushed up the price Prices for hotel rooms and meals in restaurants, according to the Swedish Bureau of Statistics.
Our Focus: “Winners Sell All”
The battle between Walmart and Amazon for retail supremacy has become an epic corporate battle. In “Winners Sell All,” published Tuesday, business journalist Jason Del Rey chronicles the clash with hundreds of billions of dollars at stake, with real-life examples. Del Rey has been covering e-commerce for more than a decade, and many Amazon and Walmart executives have been interviewed for this book, as have their employees. Kirkus Reviews described it as “a spectacular perspective on the battle of giant corporations”.
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