who is in charge of space?

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I just saw the movie “don’t look up” and without spoilers, the USA chooses a very controversial way to deal with a comet coming to Earth.

But in real life, how would things works out? Who is in charge of space? It can’t be the UN as they are completely toothless on Earth anyway.

If there was a comet threat and the USA says we have to divert it and Russia say no way, we have to blow it up. What would happen? Would both countries send their teams to the comet and fight each other once they arrive?

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6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Currently, its mostly NASA who is developing technology to blow up asteroids and such, but there has been no real threats, so its mostly practiced on asteroids that arent going to hit.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Why couldn’t both countries just compromise? NASA could work on diverting it, sharing the diverted trajectory with Roscosmos who could then intercept it with their bomb. If either plan fails, there’s a backup plan already in place.

Anonymous 0 Comments

No one at the moment is “in charge” because no one needs to be, the spirit is cooperation because there’s no money to be made yet. It functions like maritime law where everyone is held responsible for everyone’s safety since no one is really “in charge” of the ocean either. Once we start going to space for resource extraction I’m sure things will change.

Another upcoming issue is the “Kessler effect” where essentially we reach a critical mass of artificial satellites in orbit and they all destroy each other in a cataclysmic chain reaction and we won’t be able to get a rocket through the resulting debris field. So someone is eventually going to have to regulate what satellites are going to orbit but we aren’t at that hurdle yet.

Anonymous 0 Comments

No one is in charge of space. Activity in space is regulated by the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty)

You can in many ways compare it to Antarctica on earth because it is Drawing heavily from the Antarctic Treaty

Another comparison is to activate in international water.

If countries start to fight in space it is no different than if they would do it on earth. No one would try to blow up an object that is heading for earth, if you break it apart most of it will still follow the same path. The multiple smaller pieces will do more damage when they hit the earth.

Changing its orbit is the only option we have. There are multiple ways it could be done and detonating a nuclear bomb on one side of it is one possible way to change its orbit.

So large explosions can be a part of a mission but it would be a way to diverse it not to break it apart.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/328234-we-might-be-able-to-nuke-asteroids-to-save-the-planet-after-all

Anonymous 0 Comments

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