news details |
|
|
| Prospects and problems: Space travel | | | G S Sachdeva
The first few space tourists, who orbited the earth and returned safely have boosted confidence in space travel.
Mankind is at the threshold of an era of commercial space travel. The hybrid space shuttle has undertaken scores of successful missions and its technical competence, safety standards and effective re-usability stand proven beyond doubt. Developments by private enterprises, like Venture Star of Lockheed, or Delta Clipper or Space Ship One of Scaled Composites have borne fruit. The latest announcement by Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic indicates that safe, affordable and regular orbital trips round the earth would soon commence. Space commerce is here to stay and prosper.
Concurrently, enterprising organisations have carried out extensive market research in the US, Japan and Germany to discover that a sizeable populace is willing to spend $1 lakh to view the sublime beauty of the planet from heavenly heights. The Japanese have shown a keen desire to spend their lifetime savings for this dream trip. In Germany too, people have similar longings.
The response appears stupendously exploitable. The overwhelming enthusiasm is endorsed by the fact that the first few private and paying space tourists have already orbited the earth and their safe return has boosted public confidence. Thus, there is optimism about the imminence of a splurging space travel industry.
Any new mode of transportation, when commercialised and offered as public service, carries with it contractual obligations and liability commitments for the carrier vis-a-vis rights assured to the user. Concomitant regulatory responsibilities devolve on the state to enact domestic laws and on the world community to negotiate requisite international treaties. They would be necessary in the case of space travel too.
The existing legal regime of outer space comprises few international conventions and bilateral agreements, scant national statutory laws and nascent concepts of space jurisprudence. Therefore, concerns related to standardisation of ticketing and liability for accidents in space travel have not yet been fully understood or considered. Indeed, the present law of space is woefully inadequate to regulate commercial activities of corporate entities in outer space. Obviously, this calls for new ideas and actions.
Experience reminds that when air travel came on the scene, each air carrier had enforced its own individual contractual conditions and even format for the ticket. The ticketing procedure was cumbersome and contracts were rarely just in their liability towards the passenger. Initially, carriers contracted out most of their liability on specious grounds like volenti non fit injuria or ‘voluntary acts of hazardous nature need no compensation’ or other arbitrary reasons.
The fine print in the contract was generally not apparent to the passenger. The traveller also failed to appreciate the international dimension of legal implications in respect of the documents signed by him. It was after a lot of personal travails and public uproar that governments intervened and ultimately the Warsaw Convention was formalised at the international level. Though the convention had its weak points, yet it was fairly protective of passenger interests and assured reasonably equitable liability under pre-known conditions.
This predicament is bound to arise again with the rush for commercial space travel. Excited and enthusiastic travellers in their scramble for orbital delights will have neither the legal acumen nor patience for examination of the fine print on travel related documents. Some may have their lawyers vet or customise their contracts but several may inadvertently overlook their legitimate concerns. That the balance would tilt in favour of operators’ cartel is natural and obvious because competition would be scant, thus allowing monopolistic and restrictive practices to rule the roost. This coercive paradigm needs to be checked by appropriate action by the states and the world community.
Necessary measures are required to grapple with issues such as arbitrariness in selection criteria, incongruous standards of health fitness, rejection after zero-gravity training and assessment of capacity to withstand g-stress, prima facie absolute liability of the carrier in eventuality of accidents, jurisprudential philosophy of the courts on award of damages etc.
Space-worthiness of the vehicle, competence of the crew, including of ground crew at blast-off or recovery, are other issues on which there is no international agency for certification or independent monitoring. Disputes may also arise on pleas for defence set up by the carriers, like force majeure, contributory negligence of the passenger, lack of abundanti cautela (abundant caution), limitation of time, jurisdiction of court, connotation of wilful misconduct, etc. Therefore, the need for standard commercial documents for universal application in space travel cannot be underestimated.
The remedy for possible aberrations in carriers’ behaviour and unilateral contractual provisions lies in formulating an international convention that ensures a judicious balance between the interests of the passenger and the economics of the enterprise. A voluntary standardisation in ticketing and liability concepts by the carriers themselves would be a step in the right direction. The insurance industry must also contribute its mite to facilitate determination of conscionable premium and quantum of liability based on actuaries and statistics of accidents.
Meanwhile, the future space travellers must be vigilant so that they do not forfeit their enforceable rights and actionable interests due to sheer ignorance. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
