Asteroids as a means to explore the conceptual boundaries of Earth-Space

Abstract

Earth-Space has been proposed as a new construct for more thoughtful and justice-oriented governance of the interconnected systems of Earth and the regions of space which humans can alter in substantial ways. Asteroids are among the most abundant objects in our Solar System, and due to their varied orbits, will have different intersections with our orbital proximity. Asteroids offer a useful means of exploring the conceptual boundaries of Earth-Space due to their transitory nature. We posit that objects that spend any significant amount of time within the Earth-Space boundary and will return to that region in the future should be considered as an extension of Earth-Space. In addition to monitoring potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) we suggest the Earth-Space system implies that non-PHAs which could potentially become more hazardous due to human space activities (e.g., asteroid mining) should be governed differently than non-PHAs which are unlikely to be of economic interest.