As part of settlement safety, each colonist must be able to quickly outfit themselves in space/pressure suits, be able to seal their location against vaccuum/contamination in case of hull/atmospheric breach, and have access to first aid tools and supplies.
As part of settlement safety, each contained habitat or settlement must contain individual modules with full airlocks in case of breaches to the habitat hull or containment system. Each module must contain a minimum of 2 hatches or docking ports to enable quick removal or respositioning of damaged sections. Larger sections, such as a central hub of a station, will by definition have more hatches unless the specialized usage of the module prohibits this.
Specialized usages that may prohibit sufficient hatches from being placed on a section may include:
Any self-sufficient settlement should provide a sufficient education to prepare its citizens for the available work both in and out of their home settlements. This education must include disaster prevention and safety skills such as first aid, airlock safety, and depressurization survival skills.
Sufficient communications should include multiply redundant communications arrays including separate personal, media, corporate, and governmental systems. Each settlement will be responsible for its own Fair Communications regulations.
It is suggested that settlements have 8 communication tranceivers, at the designated
It should be noted that there is no current way to produce duplex transmissions to any settlement further than a few lightseconds from sender to receiver. By the time this becomes an issue, it is hoped that research into tachyons, superstrings, or an undiscovered branch of physics will have addressed this issue.
Existing man-made objects off-earth will have at the time of ratification of this charter, 25 earth-solar years to be removed or made compliant with the provisions herein contained.
There exists in this category a goldmine of raw materials for use in the development of new settlements that could otherwise become a danger to any orbital facility if it does not fall to earth (with all possibility, hopefully, of disentegrating in the atmosphere).
An existing self-sufficient colony can not be converted to penal colony status. This would be a great inconvenience to the industry, agriculture, and citizens of the colony.
Penal colonies may exist as seperate, govermentally run settlements and must never be self-sufficient. It is envisioned that once a penal colony reaches self-sufficient status either the convicts will be transported to a new colony or the colony will be granted independence to be run according to this charter.
A labor intensive penal colony will be one of the following types:
Expansion of this list is expected to occur as technology improves. It is advised that penal colonies be administered by a multi-governmental body to prevent violations of this charter.
A government of this modern enlightened age should respect basic human rights, and most do, barring the occasional dictator or extremist regimes.
Because of this, no colony or station can be fully embargoed unless it is self-sustaining. Embargoed settlements that are not self-sustaining will be subject to a multi-government oversight committee to include the embargoed settlement, settlements levying the embargo, neutral settlements, and allied settlements.
The committee must be made of equal parts of supporting governments on both sides and at least 1 neutral arbitrator (preferably an equal number) but no more than the number of governments on either side of the embargo. It is preferred to have a minimum of five governments present when more than two governments are imposing the embargo.
To prevent concentration camps from developing, governments (both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial) must encourage competition and foster fair trade within a single colony or station.
Not only will this generate competition, but no advancement can be made as quickly without motivation. Civilization almost demands that advancement occur in order to keep up with the quality or the necessities of life.
No government may own an entire colony, but may own services supplied to the colony with the appropriate right-of-way laws to make expansion possible as needed for the colony.
The government is not the facility. It is a representation of the people of a colony. As such, it is an idea which should not in and of itself be personified. However, for the welfare of the citizen, a government should be able to provide the necessities of life and habitat support.
It is understood that progress happens. The government of a colony may be required to make modifications to the habitat in order to continue providing the critical life necessities. Citizens are expected to be made aware of and cooperated with (not coerced) in the process of instuting the needed improvements.
We have too many instances in our planetary history where people have become virtual slaves of the corporation or the government that began a town. In many cases, perhaps all cases, the citizens of the town had to live by strict, cruel, or unusual laws. At what point in our future do we as citizens of Earth need to step up to the plate and prevent future concentration camp environments? I say it is now before they develop.
Who will the first brave colonists be subject too? An unjust series of laws and dictators, or to a just series of laws and duly elected representives who can safely be removed from office for violating their rights?
For the purposes of this charter the following definitions will apply:
settlement will refer to any habitat including: planetary (including Earth), station based, planetoid, moon, asteroid, or other location where human populations exist.
government will include the officials in charge of any settlement.
habitat will be defined as any contained or non-contained environment with the necessary space, accompanying good, and needed equipment to support life.
research-only facility will not include permanent housing once settlements off earth are established.
self-sufficient will include any settlement as defined above, capable of providing all necessary utilities and needs to support life (food, water, air, clothing, and shelter).
