“Best Practice: Impact Assessment of Extraterrestrial Activities” outlines best practices for impact assessment (IA) of extraterrestrial activities, ensuring that space exploration and development consider environmental, ethical, and sustainability concerns. It highlights the need for similar protections for celestial bodies as those applied to Earth, emphasizing responsible resource use, minimizing contamination, and preserving cultural and scientific sites. The principles promote transparency, precautionary approaches, and public participation in decision-making. By following these guidelines, space activities can be conducted in a way that supports long-term sustainability and benefits future generations.
These international best practice principles are intended to ensure that impacts on the extraterrestrial environment are appropriately considered in decisions relating to extraterrestrial activities, thus rendering them more sustainable. The principles are intended to help practitioners integrate consideration of the extraterrestrial environment into both project-level (e.g., EIA) and strategic-level (e.g., SEA) IAs.
About Best Practice Principles Series
IAIA’s International Best Practice Principles series covers a variety of impact assessment topical areas, sharing best practices for practitioners.
