Deliberation On Our Resources Rights

Modelling balanced, multistakeholder expert governance of space resources.

OUTCOMES

Recommendations for managing lunar resources held by the Trust.




Eleven delegates worked together over 5 months to align on evidence based approaches for resource governance. The recommendations inform the activities of the Breaking Ground Trust.


Read the Recommendations

Read the Response from the Trust Stewardship Committee

 

Further Context:

The DOORR process was designed to create inclusive, sustainable and practical solutions for lunar resources management through a stakeholder representation dialogue approach. The work that DOORR produced through these deliberations is helping define Breaking Ground’s position regarding lunar resource management.

Breaking Ground will purchase regolith samples in 2022, these recommendations help the trust decide how to manage these samples. In addition, Breaking Ground will make clear statements about the management concepts recommended for each regolith purchase. The recommendations below have been received by the Trust Stewardship Committee (TSC) and the trust will form positions as a result. The TSC is not required to adopt all recommendations.

 
 

#1 PROTOTYPING RISK ASSESSMENTS FOR LUNAR RESOURCES OPERATIONS

Create a risk assessment model which would define all the risks linked to lunar resources operations.

Require a notification mechanism if someone enters a certain perimeter around its sample.

#2 SETTING PRECEDENTS FOR INFORMATION SHARING

Make regolith purchase processes public and purchase agreements available and accessible to all.

Define what information drawn from the regolith samples is considered a common good and make it public and available to all. 

Define a model which allows for commercialization and public availability of scientific data to coexist. 

 
 

#3 FACILITATING BENEFIT SHARING PROCESSES

Act as facilitator that is able to include the private sector in the redistribution process of information and regolith samples. 

Work alongside private companies to experiment with potential models for return on investment if they agree to enter into a purchase agreement with BGT. 

#4 ACTING AS A ‘GUARDIAN OF THE REGOLITH’

Share and/or redistribute regolith samples using an application process open to all.

Share regolith samples to those with the greatest justification for their use. The application and justification of use should be assessed by an independent, transparent and inclusive process using a case by case approach.

Hold regolith samples using an “open research” management regime and loan them for scientific purposes.

 
DELEGATES

Discover the voices in the deliberation, representing a diverse range of views and backgrounds.

The delegates shown below offered their time and perspectives to co-create the recommendations. These individuals were selected across multiple criteria and invited to join.

Click their photos for their full bios.

 
Featured
Erin Matariki Carr
Erin Matariki Carr

Of Ngāi Tūhoe and Ngāti Awa descent, worked as Manager of Planning & Design to create and implement policies under the world-first legislation instituting the Te Urewera rainforest as her own legal person.

Mustapha Agbadi
Mustapha Agbadi

Partner, Policy and Legal Compliance at Bismerk Solicitors and currently undergoing a post-graduate program in Space Law at Northumbria University, Newcastle. SWF IAC scholarship winner.

Riddhi Maharaj
Riddhi Maharaj

Her current area of research is focused on the sustainable in-situ production of silicon and oxygen using lunar regolith, for future lunar settlements, and is a published co-author of a journal article in this area.

Nivedita Raju
Nivedita Raju

Researcher at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), conducting research on space security, gender issues, and disarmament education.

Masashi Sato
Masashi Sato

Masashi joined ispace in June 2019 as Industry Creation Director. He facilitates lunar industry vision development across government, commercial sector, academia, and beyond.

AJ Link
AJ Link

Openly autistic, AJ received his JD from The George Washington University Law School focussing on disability law, international human rights, and space law. Currently pursuing an LL.M in Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony
Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony

A historian and the curator of the Apollo Collection at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Her work focuses on the history of science diplomacy, the politics of lunar exploration, and the material culture of spaceflight.

Dr. Jinyuan Su
Dr. Jinyuan Su

Professor of International Law at Institute of International Law, Wuhan University, China. His research interests lie in outer space law, the law of the sea, and international aviation law.

Dr. Ben Bussey
Dr. Ben Bussey

Dr. Bussey is a planetary scientist who is currently the lead of the APL team supporting NASA’s Space Tech’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative. He co-authored the Clementine Atlas of the Moon, and has a specific interest in the lunar poles.

Dr. Thomas Cheney
Dr. Thomas Cheney

Thomas Cheney is Lecturer in Space Governance within AstrobiologyOU, at the Open University. His research focuses on planetary protection, space resources and property rights, the use of outer space, and arms control in outer space.

Yoav Landsman
Yoav Landsman

A seasoned space engineer & entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the Israeli space industry. He was the senior systems engineer and the deputy mission director at SpaceIL on the Beresheet lunar lander, the first privately funded lunar mission.

 
BEHIND THE SCENES

We are sharing how the DOORR process works to demonstrate a model for others to use.

 

Informed by decades of organizational theory, community organizing and policy development best practice, the DOORR process was sophisticated yet simple.

Summary of the DOORR Process:

 

Phase 1: Relationship and Foundations

• Onboarding - 1-1s to build a common ground of information and aligning on shared purpose
• Session One - Presenting the plan for our work together, and hearing every individual's stories and backgrounds

Phase 2: Getting Informed

• Session Two and Three - Listening to, and creating, presentations on key topics to inform the group thought process. Experts were invited to speak on topics which were selected to form a curriculum.

Presentations:

  • Dr Hannah Sargeant l Lunar Water Science

  • Tanja Masson-Zwaan l Contemporary Space Governance

  • Akhil Rao l Lunar Resources as Economic Commons

  • Dr Teasel Muir-Harmony l A Historic Account of Lunar Samples

  • Dr Jinyuan Su l Governance of Areas Beyond National Jurisdictions

  • Matariki Carr l Indigenous Law and Legal Personhood

  • Dr Ben Bussey l The Lunar Poles: An Ideal Site for Scientific Exploration

  • Gunter Just l Regolith Excavation and Beneficiation

  • Dr. Alexander Peslyak l Russian Perspective on Lunar Resource Utilization and Russia’s History with the Moon

  • Dr Thomas Cheney l Property Rights and Sovereignty in Outer Space

Phase 3: Articulating New Concepts

• Session Four - Group reflection on themes and key topics from presentations
• Session Five - Generating promising concepts, prioritising what’s viable

Phase 4: Refining Recommendations

• Session Six - Development of draft ideas
• Session Seven - Finalise key concepts for use by Breaking Ground Trust