TARDIGRADES

•Water-dwelling eight-legged micro-animal
  (0.5 mm length) aka “water bear”, “moss piglet”
•Habitat: mosses & lichens
•Capable of survival in extreme conditions
  (FOTON-M3 mission - LEO: ESA-Russia 2007)

 https://www.inverse.com/article/58484-should-we-care-if-tardigrades-survived-on-the-moon?link_uid=18&utm_campaign=inverse-daily-2019-08-14&utm_medium=inverse&utm_source=newsletter


•Beresheet moon mission (2019): Arch Mission Foundation - SpaceIL (Israel)
•Launched from US soil – SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket
•Approval granted by FAA to SpaceIL for a benign lunar Lander payload
•Subsequently Arch Mission F. included a few thousand dehydrated   Tardigrades in lunar Lander payload
•Arch M. F. Failed to notify SpaceIL –> FAA not notified
•Lunar Lander crashed on descent – condition of Tardigrades unknown
Tardigrade aka “water bear”, “moss piglet”
(inverse.com , 2019)

​http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3786/1

​IMPLICATIONS OF TARDIGRADES CASE.
Non-state space actors
•fear that non-state actors may commit unfriendly acts in space and trigger state-level responses.
•fear that since private acts may be difficult to attribute to a responsible State, illegal acts may be perpetrated by States using private actors as their proxy.
•the international community is at a crossroads when it comes to dealing with private actors in the Space industry, a historically government-driven industry. 
Is greater international governance needed?
•fears that a few States and their national entrepreneurs will quickly and unilaterally seize locations and assets in space i.e. similar to historical colonialism.
•the Legal Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty are relevant
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3794/1

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