Paragraphs for Space Shoggoths, Bush robots, and Dyson Trees – the legal complexity of manufacturing space objects using natural and artificial space resources

Planning a space mission is mostly constrained by factors of payload mass and vol- ume, as well as the efficiency of systems and launch capabilities of a provider. Nearly all contemporary satellites carry a limited number of spare fuel for maneuvering and station keeping, no spare parts, not even means to provide proper repairs. The future of space mission architecture is dependent on both, the interconnectedness of its elements as well as sustainability and optimized logistics. This calls for more operations requiring robots as servicers, factories, constructors resource extractors, and power providers. It is very easy to simply dismiss the concept of ISRU (In-situ Space Resource Utilization), OSAM (On-orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufactur- ing) and Recycling/Upcycling in space by declaring the low tech readiness level of required technologies, or that they have been discussed in the years between 1960- 1990, causing controversy in both scholarly fields as well as within space policy itself. It should be noted, that visions of space progress driven by vast industrialization and extraction/processing/manufacturing capacities were the reason that the L5-Society, The National Space Institute, AIAA and others have advocated for the rejection of the Moon Agreement of 1979. Similarly, we can see a gradual shift in discussing space resource utilization rights, which have recently gained more and more trac- tion due to national developments of The United States, Luxembourg, or the United Arab Emirates, to discuss the problems, and issues involving space products and objects partially of fully composed of space resources. The scope of this paper is to discuss the impact of the ability of space objects, whether one or a group of them, being able to construct other space resources using either natural resources ex- tracted from a celestial body, and outer space, or reusing elements of space debris or wreckage. The title uses the terms like a “shoggoth” or bush robot, which in this paper are in- terchangeable concepts of modular, reconfigurable robotic space objects capable of extracting resources, materials processing, constructing components, elements or whole new space objects, including its copy, in the sense similar to Moore’s Ar- tificial living plants, or von Neumann’s universal kinematic assembler. Although being inspired by science fiction literature and futurology, there have been many academic approaches or even demonstrations of either partly self-replicable hylo- technological machines, or modular robots, even forms of so-called “utility fog”. The concept of Dyson Tree, is being brought to bridge the legal gap between biological and hylotechnological solutions, as well as to present a different approach to what actual ISRU might look like. This paper will mostly focus on the field of space law as it is relevant to identify problems arising from space objects being manufactured in outer space and out of space resources, although it will address some aspects of patent law.