I am talking o a reporter about this in a couple hours: https://regina.ctvnews.ca/from-outer-space-sask-farmers-baffled-after-discovering-strange-wreckage-in-field-1.6880353

Prof. Sam Lawler

Well, I again didn't get a big giant thing done that I've been procrastinating on for months because it sucks. But I did learn a hell of a lot about space law and I have a feeling I will have zillions of news interview in the next few days, which is great! I hope this gets lots of people talking about unregulated commercialization of orbit!

Quitting work stuff for the day. Time for goats, auroras, and wondering if my trip to Toronto will actually happen or if space weather will cancel it...

Prof. Sam Lawler

ok jumping back into this thread because hahahaha I can't believe everything that's happening.

I found out during a live radio interview this morning that someone claiming to be from SpaceX did indeed call the farmer, and ask to get the space junk back from him. But it sounds like whoever contacted him has absolutely no idea how rural Saskatchewan works. There is no FedEx. There are no addresses. This is going to be harder to recover than they thought.

Prof. Sam Lawler

I talked to a couple of space law experts to find out what to even advise the farmer on this. I had sort of thought that since it's in another country and it fell on private property, it belongs to the property owner.

But it is much more complicated than that, because of the Outer Space Treaty.

What *should* have happened is Global Affairs Canada should have contacted the US State Department, who should have contacted SpaceX.

Prof. Sam Lawler

But I think what actually happened was someone somewhere else in the Canadian gov't saw a news interview and told SpaceX.

The space law experts I talked to agreed that since SpaceX has now asked for it (assuming it *is* SpaceX), the farmer has to surrender it. BUT he should ask for compensation.

If there had been damage, the US gov't would have had to compensate the Canadian gov't, but because it's a private company, and no damage happened, compensation is voluntary

Prof. Sam Lawler

I chatted with the farmer again, and he's doing everything right! He asked for proof that the person was from SpaceX. He asked them to donate to the local skating rink. He's being careful at every step. He's doing a great job of dealing with a totally bizarre situation that very few people in the world have ever had to deal with.

I'll be heading up to visit him and see the junk over the weekend once I'm back in Sask, he seemed pretty confident that he'd still be in possession of it.

Prof. Sam Lawler

I have so many interview requests that I'm actually starting to lose track of them at this point...

But I'm really glad there is so much interest. This is terrifying stuff: SpaceX and other companies are dumping stuff on the ground that could very easily kill people. Countries need to enforce the rules that already exist, and the regulations NEED to be updated to take into account how terrifyingly many re-entries are happening now.

Prof. Sam Lawler

Augh I have an interview written on my calendar happening soon but I can't find it anywhere in my email.... oh noooooo I need a better system.

Uilebheist

@sundogplanets Shouldn't he also ask that SpaceX provide proof that the junk is from one of their satellites before demanding it back?

I was thinking such proof could be useful next time they claim that there is no danger of things landing where they can cause damage.

Prof. Sam Lawler

I have now done 5 interviews about Saskatchewan space junk from a random empty classroom at University of Toronto.

Prof. Sam Lawler

I'm going to CBC studios in Toronto tomorrow morning for an interview and coffee with a science journalist that I'm totally going to fangirl about! This is exciting (but it means I have to shift 2 other interviews I had already scheduled...haha this is so hilarious)

Nick 🇨🇦 V13.9XXA Candidate

@sundogplanets
Bob?

Prof. Sam Lawler

@intothewestaway Nicole Mortillaro!!

Nick 🇨🇦 V13.9XXA Candidate

@sundogplanets
Excellent. Her Eclipse stuff was great.

Prof. Sam Lawler

Nicole Mortillaro gave me a hug after the interview! ️ ️ ️

Prof. Sam Lawler

...and let me just say that it is fucking surreal to get texts from my partner about baby goats while I'm trying not to completely freak out walking through downtown Toronto after a CBC interview.

Prof. Sam Lawler

I'll write much more about this later, but... this happened:

Riley S. Faelan

@sundogplanets Considering Melon's obsession with "assassination coordinates", he's probably thinking about aiming his junk precisely enough to get people whom he doesn't like killed while getting to claim plausible deniability.

Prof. Sam Lawler

So...this saga is ongoing, but here's the latest. I met the farmer on Saturday. He is incredibly nice, and his memory and deductive reasoning powers are impressive! It was really fun to chat and learn from him all the information he pieced together on his own, just from studying the piece of space junk. Farmers = engineers!

He also showed me the official lawyer-y-but-polite email he got from SpaceX. They said they will come pick up the piece from him, and they will compensate him. Good!

Prof. Sam Lawler

Legally, he's supposed to turn over the space junk to the owners, and he doesn't want to fight SpaceX, especially if they are being polite and provide a healthy donation to the Ituna skating rink as he requested.

But it's totally unclear if Canada has any laws on the books that could be actually used to compel a Canadian citizen to hand over a piece of space junk to a company in another country. So, from a space law standpoint, it would be a lot more "fun" if he refused. What would happen?

Prof. Sam Lawler

After meeting him, I drove around the area - if that big a piece (it's 100 pounds and 4 feet by 6 feet) made it to the ground intact, then smaller pieces definitely did too. We didn't find anything, of course. It's a HUGE area to search.

But I got a piece of paper and wrote "Did you find space junk? Call me!" with my name and number and left it on the small town co-op bulletin board, and I talked to the small town newspaper journalist who first wrote about it.

So the saga will continue...