Yun Zhao and Mingyan Nie on Creating a lunar-centric legal regime to preserve peaceful and sustainable uses of cislunar space: Proposing initial measures (Acta Astronautica)

"Creating a lunar-centric legal regime to preserve peaceful and sustainable uses of cislunar space: Proposing initial measures"
Mingyan Nie, Yun Zhao
Acta Astronautica, Volume 236, pp. 856 - 868
Published online: July 2025

Abstract: Cislunar space, the significant region beyond Earth geostationary orbit, has become a focal point for leading spacefaring nations like the United States and China, which are developing infrastructure to support their lunar missions. These nations are establishing national policies and strategies to advance their interests in cislunar space; however, existing international legal frameworks, designed primarily for Earth-orbit and near-Earth activities, are inadequate to address the complex challenges of preserving peaceful and sustainable operations in this region. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, foundational to current space law, sets a ‘dual-track’ system for peaceful use of outer space and the Moon. Yet, the interconnected nature of cislunar and lunar activities complicates efforts to maintain peace in cislunar space. Additionally, while the Outer Space Treaty and related soft laws offer general principles to prevent harmful interference, they fall short in addressing the unique demands of cislunar space. In response to these emerging challenges, this paper advocates for the creation of a lunar-centric legal regime tailored to the specific conditions of cislunar space. Such a regime should incorporate stricter regulations that address new developments in cislunar and lunar activities and should build upon existing outer space laws. As initial steps, this paper proposes strengthening the ‘exclusively peaceful purposes’ principle, establishing clear implementation rules to safeguard exclusively peaceful uses, refining the ‘due regard’ principle, and creating cislunar-specific Traffic Management and space debris mitigation guidelines to enhance sustainability. Moreover, fostering cooperation between the U.S. and China is crucial. These nations must work together to develop a framework of mutually recognized rules to prevent escalating competition and potential conflicts, ensuring that cislunar space remains a peaceful and sustainable domain.