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The article analyses the modern and retrospective international and national regulations in the field of space activities. It is emphasized that the long-term program of space research proves the maturity and competence that we have yet to demonstrate. The development of such a program (rather, doctrine) is beyond the preparation of a formal document. The challenges we have outlined are about the role of the space doctrine in the system of conceptual documents defining the areas of the space sector’s sustainable development. In the study, the dialectical materialist method of in the cognition of the objective reality enables to analyze of comprehensively doctrinal provisions in developing the concept “Space doctrine.” The empirical research was based on the statistical and analytical materials: World Trade Organization Annual Report 2019, the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities for 2018, Aeronautics and Space Report of the President — Fiscal Year 2019 Activities, the statistical data and reports of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) for 1997-2020. The study leads to a number of conclusions. The implementation of the future Space doctrine should be a shift from the initial state of affairs to the new model of space activities and the sustainable development of the space industry. The study reveals three levels of Space doctrine: basic, strategic, and tactical (operational).

In the article, the authors reveal the historical and legal aspects of space activities in Ukraine. The historical and legal acts of the Ukrainian SSR and the Soviet Union, regulating the space industry, are analyzed. Considerable attention was paid to the peculiarities of legal regulation of the activities of the main space design bureaus of the time. It is concluded that the space activities of the USSR — in general and the Ukrainian SSR were provided on the basis of sublegislative normative legal acts (resolutions of the Council of Ministers and orders of the Central bodies of the Communist party). However, the lack of the national space law was offset by systematic and full funding of space activities, resulting in the Soviet Union having a powerful space industry. In the conditions of modern development, Ukraine has all the opportunities to achieve significant development of the space industry, using the positive experience of the USSR and opening access to space activities of private investment.

The article reveals the place and role of multinational corporations in the world market for space services and technologies. The authors highlight trends in globalization and cosmization of the world economy, which have both positive and negative effects. The advantage of the private sector’s entry into space exploration is the recognition of high-tech companies contributing to economic growth as worthy of investment. The practice of transnational companies to affect the economic and legal sphere of the countries of their presence and violate the fundamental rights of its citizens is outlined as a negative trend. Theoretically, probable variants of the regulatory framework for the world market for space services and technologies with transnational corporations’ participation are projected. It is proposed to create a global administrator in space activities — the World Space Union.

Even though technological advances could allow humans to reach Mars in the coming decades, launch costs prohibit the establishment of permanent manned outposts for which most consumables would be sent from Earth. This issue can be addressed byin situresource utilization: producing part or all of these consumables on Mars, from local resources. Biological components are needed, among other reasons because various resources could be efficiently produced only by the use of biological systems. But most plants and microorganisms are unable to exploit Martian resources, and sending substrates from Earth to support their metabolism would strongly limit the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of their cultivation. However, resources needed to grow specific cyanobacteria are available on Mars due to their photosynthetic abilities, nitrogen-fixing activities and lithotrophic lifestyles. They could be used directly for various applications, including the production of food, fuel and oxygen, but also indirectly: products from their culture could support the growth of other organisms, opening the way to a wide range of life-support biological processes based on Martian resources. Here we give insights into how and why cyanobacteria could play a role in the development of self-sustainable manned outposts on Mars.

ATHENA is an on-going Horizon 2020 Twinning project aiming to promote remote sensing technologies for cultural heritage (CH) applications in Cyprus. ATHENA project brings together the Eratosthenes Research Center (ERC) of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) with two internationally leading institutions of Europe, namely the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). The project’s scope is to position the ERC regionally and stimulate future cooperation through placements at partner institutions and enhance the research and academic profile of all participants. The scientific strengthening and networking achieved through the ATHENA project could be of great benefit not only for Cyprus but for the entire Eastern Mediterranean, bearing a plethora of archaeological sites and monuments urgently calling for monitoring and safeguarding. The preservation of CH and landscape comprises a strategic priority not only to guarantee cultural treasures and evidence of the human past to future generations, but also to exploit them as a strategic and valuable economic asset. The objective of this paper is to present knowledge transfer examples achieved from the ATHENA project through intense training activities. These activities were also designed to enhance the scientific profile of the research staff and to accelerate the development of research capabilities of the ERC. At the same time the results from the training activities were also exploited to promote earth observation knowledge and best practices intended for CH. The activities included active and passive remote sensing data used for archaeological applications, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image analysis for change and deformation detection, monitoring of risk factors related to cultural heritage sites including archaeological looting etc.