Claiming the Cosmos: Who Owns the Final Frontier?

In the new Space Race, with multiple countries and competing interests deciding who gets to claim victory over the cosmos, it's time to analyze the legal, policy, and regulatory aspects of space endeavors, define the role of private corporations in exploration, and determine how to handle space tourism, mining, and settlements.The expansion of space exploration raises both fundamental and existential questions for humanity.How should scientific advancement take place? What would the discovery of life elsewhere mean for our connected society, geopolitics, and religion?Who decides how these discoveries are funded? Darrell M. West uses a decision-making framework based on collegial governance and expert consultations to shape an international space policy guided by key principles of transparency, collaboration, sustainability, human safety, public oversight, shared infrastructure investment, global cooperation, knowledge-building, demilitarization, and pan-nationalism.