\n<\/p>\n
SpaceX will become the co-owner of valuable data, biological samples, and possibly even patents and intellectual property related to human spaceflight, according to the terms and conditions<\/span><\/a> of a new program inviting research on crewed Dragon missions.<\/p>\n The company started quietly inviting\u00a0proposals<\/a> \u201cfor exceptional science and research ideas that will enable life in space and on other planets,\u201d to be executed on orbit using its Dragon spacecraft capsule. Specifically, SpaceX says it\u2019s looking for research studies and experiments focused on fitness, or solutions to increase \u201cefficiency and effectiveness,\u201d and those focused on human health during long-duration spaceflight missions.<\/p>\n Selected research study groups would have access to SpaceX\u2019s crewed Dragon missions, opening up a whole new use case for one of the company\u2019s core products.<\/p>\n The company has discussed using Dragon as an orbital lab, similar to the International Space Station (ISS), going back a decade. Evidently, the business case didn\u2019t make sense until recently. But by platforming on orbit research, the company would also gain access to valuable data in addition to any fees or other conditions presented to customers.<\/p>\n In the research collaboration terms and conditions, SpaceX states that it and the entity behind the scientific research will \u201cjointly own\u201d rights to all data recorded and samples obtained during the course of the research on orbit \u2014 regardless of whether this information was captured by SpaceX itself or the research institution. The document further specifies that all \u201ctechnology\u201d \u2014 which is expansively defined to include software, inventions, proprietary information and more \u2014 developed jointly by SpaceX and the research institution shall be jointly owned.<\/p>\n The agreement also states that the technology would be jointly owned \u201cwithout accounting to the other parties,\u201d legal language that means that each party could essentially commercialize or license the technology without any duty or obligation to the other party.<\/p>\n \u201cEach party can license to anybody else, [though] they can\u2019t give an exclusive license to anyone else, because they don\u2019t have exclusive rights themselves,\u201d Steven Wood, an attorney specializing in space law at Vela Wood, explained in a recent interview. \u201cThey can independently commercialize, and they have no duty or obligation to share any of the proceeds with the other party.\u201d<\/p>\n There are clear exceptions: The document specifies that any technology developed solely using the researchers\u2019 own equipment (defined here as equipment used \u201cfor the measurement, recording and transmission of data\u201d) is owned solely by the researcher; however, even in this case, the data and samples would still clearly be jointly owned.<\/p>\n These are fairly standard terms for patents and inventions in this context, Wood explained, and shared that ownership of data and samples is also not out of bounds. But it reveals that commercializing Dragon would provide SpaceX with far more than just revenue.<\/p>\n SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has always been explicit about the company\u2019s core goal: making human life multi-planetary, starting with Mars. The company has made considerable headway toward its mission, with the most visible example being the massive Starship rocket, which is being designed with deep space travel in mind. SpaceX has conducted two orbital flight tests of Starship and is poised to conduct a third sometime this month.<\/p>\n But getting to Mars is just one half of the problem. As NASA pointed out earlier this month \u2014 and SpaceX leadership no doubt understands \u2014 astronauts going to the Red Planet will face serious physical and psychological risks. As NASA most recently summarized in a white paper released last week<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> dangers of interplanetary travel can include exposure to high levels of radiation, the physiological effects of differing gravity environments, and long-term exposure to isolation and confining environments.<\/p>\n NASA has spent years studying the effects of microgravity on the human body. But the agency is clear that the risks are very different for astronauts who stay on the ISS for six months or even a year (which may not be so bad after all<\/a>) versus those who may embark on a multi-year roundtrip to Mars.<\/p>\n Given SpaceX\u2019s ambitions, it only makes sense that the company wants to platform even more research into solutions that could reduce these risks \u2014 and better set up their own mission to Mars for success.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\u201cExpanding the light of consciousness\u201d <\/b><\/h2>\n