Space Policy Pioneers Podcast - Hjalte Osborn Frandsen
Transcript
​[00:00:00] Andy: Hello, space policy enthusiasts. Welcome to the Space Policy Pioneers Podcast. My name is Andy Williams and I'm the Director of Science in Space, a niche space policy consultancy firm. On this podcast, we'll talk to leading space policy experts and hear their informative and inspirational career stories to help you, the listener, learn about the different career paths in space policy and the skills you need to be successful.
If you enjoy this podcast, please help us by leaving a five star rating on your favorite podcast platform and sign up for more information and career resources at www. scienceinspace.co.uk. One final note before we begin, all guests are talking in their personal capacity and are not [00:01:00] representing any official position of their former or current employing organization.
This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not legal or investment advice.
Andy: Hjalte, I have been mentoring and coaching early career people for years. The top question I get is “how do I get into a policy role?” –which is why I started this podcast in the first place. But the second most frequent question I get is: “should I do a PhD?” So you've had quite an interesting and long career before your PhD in business consulting. So how did you find your way into the space policy field?
[00:01:46] Hjalte: Yeah I guess, as is the case with many people in our field, it's been a lifelong passion to work with space. And I guess for me, I didn't really realize that as I'm a lawyer, by background that you [00:02:00] could, you could have that as a full time job. So it's been something I've been doing in my spare time, so to speak.
And then at some point , my clever wife said to me, look, we talk about space, like every day after work, couldn't you just - make it into your work. And it was actually for me, at least, a bit of a crazy idea of the whole PhD thing. It wasn't something I had considered before. I suddenly like, yeah, that's one way to get to work with space.
And that kind of, yeah. So it was, to me at least, it was kind of a crazy idea. So maybe if someone had done a podcast for me 10 years ago, I would've started earlier doing full-time space research. But to me, it came as this crazy idea and I basically just wrote this PhD proposal a bit out of the blue. There was no call for proposals from the university looking for space law. We don't have any–oh, well, until now–we did not have any space law research in Denmark at all. So I basically wrote up a proposal [00:03:00] explaining to my university the University of Copenhagen, why a lot of stuff is happening in space these days.
A lot of the countries we compare ourselves to normally have active space law and space policy academic ecosystems and we don't have anything in Denmark. Shouldn't we have that? Yeah, I had almost forgotten about sending it in and then half a year later, you got this, I got this letter back that, Hey, we can fund that, that sounds interesting. So that was the start of my journey.
[00:03:27] Andy: That's fantastic. So, and it's interesting that you felt that you weren't really aware of the potential career options. When you were looking at your background, you did a business degree, right, as your undergraduate, and then a law degree, law master's a bit later on. At that time, so we're talking what, like, almost 15 years ago to what extent were you really aware of the details of the space sector and the space industry?
[00:03:54] Hjalte: Yeah, the details of the space industry, not working professionally, I think I was very much an [00:04:00] amateur with interest, but in my work, I was a management consultant. I actually got more and more opportunities to look at space as part of my work, because some of our clients started becoming interested in space.
So I started. Having building up some kind of confidence. And I think space can be a little bit intimidating. Do you feel like you need? To know so much to have an opinion to move into this field. It is a very, very technical field. So you need something to give you the confidence to start seeing yourself as a space professional.
And I think that's why, for example, getting a PhD can be a way in, but I think it's also true that you don't need that as much necessarily anymore as the industry expands more and more different roles come potential roles into and ways into space opens up. I would say,
Andy: Yeah. So that's a good observation, right? So it's back to this [00:05:00] question, should you do a PhD or not? I mean, there are now many, many different possible roles and for many of them it's not necessary, actually, to do a PhD. So many people really struggle with this choice.
So can you talk us through how you approached this choice and what were the factors that made you decide to start a PhD other than doing something else, like looking for a job directly in, in a space company, for example.
[00:05:30] Hjalte: I think part of it for me was this feeling that I wanted to have expert knowledge to go into the field. And I think. Now having worked for three years with this, I see that it might not necessarily be something you have to do. But I think that was one of my motivations, and then it was also because there's not that many space jobs in Denmark, in a small country like Denmark, especially not on the [00:06:00] policy side. We have more technical jobs, of course, but on the policy side there's just not that many jobs. So one way to get to do full time space law and policy is to do the research, right?
And. It's such a privilege to do a PhD, returning to should you do a PhD. I don't think it's necessary to do a PhD to, as an entrance ticket, it's not something you need to show to go into the space sector and such. But it's a fantastic opportunity. So if you have the passion for research or interest in research, it's such a fantastic way to start because you get three years where you can do the things you find most interesting in the world, or at least that's what I feel like I've gotten to do right here. You can just attack the questions that your are most interested in. So it's just a fantastic way to start. You can build your knowledge. You are actually getting paid to read the book you want to read the articles you want to read. And in that way, build up yourself as an, as a space expert, which is just fantastic. I feel like,
[00:06:58] Andy: Yeah, when I reflect back on my own [00:07:00] experience. That was one of the main things I just loved to study a subject really, really in depth. And, you know, once I'd gone through the process of doing my actual dissertation research and I realized that it wasn't something that was really practical or could be sort of directly applied in the real world.
That still didn't detract from the positive experience of going through the really difficult task of formulating a research question and gathering all the data and putting together all the pieces. So that was really, really rewarding. But yeah, I do sometimes wonder, so I did my PhD part time while I was working full time and it took me seven years. And of course, I do wonder, well, had I done something else to really try and get into the space sector instead, you know, I could have joined some networking groups. I could have done my own independent [00:08:00] research and probably, achieved the same level of knowledge.
So yeah, it's not a straightforward decision by any means. Yeah, so it's not you're saying it's not always necessary. I think there are some roles where it absolutely is necessary. If you want to be an academic, for example, then it's pretty clear that you have to have a PhD.
So could you kind of digest this? I mean, is there any kind of specific advice? So if someone's just starting to think, okay, should I do a PhD? What are some of the things that They should think about, what steps should they take?
[00:08:35] Hjalte: yeah well, I guess I have a couple of points to this. One of the things that really helped me was reaching out to other people who are already in academia and in space law. Just trying to explain whatever, what I found interesting and just such a positive experience. I got so much feedback from people helping me formulate what was my research question, what would [00:09:00] be pointing me to relevant literature. And yeah, I think that was a fantastic, that's a fantastic open community is my experience in space and also in a global way because I didn't have any local, I didn't have a supervisor I could sort of, talk to in Copenhagen.
So I reached out to people in the US and UK, and got a lot of good advice, basically that helped me formulate a good research proposal, right? And also just made me smarter by pointing out literature I should look at stuff that you might not be, might not see when you're not in academia from the beginning as I was not.
So that, yeah, reach out to people. That's really good. And then the other thing I also learned that you should not be too timid or nervous about formulating your research proposal because it will change and that's the nature of research that you don't have to kind of follow what you write in that proposal.
So you are allowed to be, I guess, a little bit cynical about if there is request for proposal from the university [00:10:00] or there's an open position, you're allowed to angle it so that you get to do your PhD and as soon as you are on as a PhD, you have your academic freedom and you will, yeah, you will be able to reformulate and be flexible. I don't know if but it's just, if you’ve never done a research proposal before, like most people, I guess, starting a PhD haven't, then you maybe think that you're chained up to this for the next three years. And that's not my experience. Of course you learn all the time. I have, I'm handing in three months and what I'm handing in is very different from what I envisioned before starting off my PhD. Right. And I think that's very natural. So yeah,
[00:10:42] Andy: Yeah, that's great. Okay, so let's say that you've now decided that you do want to pursue a PhD. And, you have a rough idea of the subject. And, you were just talking about the act of putting together a proposal.
So in my experience, I've found [00:11:00] there's kind of two general categories of people: those that are already in an academic setting, they've maybe done a research master's degree and or they've done a research role at a think tank. And the PhD is just like a sort of next natural step. And then there's the second category, which I think is what you've fallen to in that someone who's, had a regular career. So they did their studies early on and then they got jobs and they had a regular career and then they decide they want to do a PhD. And I found that for this category of people, they actually have quite a challenge in putting together a research proposal and, finding a supervisor.
So you've already mentioned the importance of reaching out to people, but can you give some advice on how you really started out this process of putting together a proposal and reintegrating yourself back into the academic setting?
[00:11:55] Hjalte: well, except for I really think, one of the most important thing is to just reach out [00:12:00] because as you say, when you've been out of it, you're out of, you're far away from academia. You're not really into this way of thinking and formulating research proposals. So getting that vital feedback from people in academia is…
[00:12:12] Andy: What about finding the problem though? You picked a topic that's space law and space traffic management. So kind of, in order to write a proposal, you've got to have access to the literature and you've got to be able to know what the problems are in the first place to be able to write the proposal. So how did you go about that?
[00:12:31] Hjalte: yeah, good question. I think for, for me, I was motivated by the problem from the beginning in the broad way. It's space sustainability was what I've been for years, been interested in. And then, of course, digging into that when you come out, when you're not in academia, you, of course, might have an idea about these broad themes, the problems, you can see them, and then of course that needs to be translated into something more specific in order to do, to be a good [00:13:00] PhD research question.
But I think the starting point, it should be something you're passionate about a problem that you perceive because you need to work with this problem for, by yourself in many cases for three years or yeah, as you say, even more years, maybe if you do it part, part time.
So I think finding having as a starting point, something that you yourself are very much passionate about is a good starting point and, and then when you engage with the literature, you get smarter, read the articles, talk to talk to the experts in the field, and then you can start to refine from that overarching problem, something that is clear enough and specific enough to be a good research question.
And, I think, actually in many cases right now, because space is developing so fast and also the space policy is in a state of flux, new norms are getting defined. You actually have more free hand as a newcomer to define your [00:14:00] problem compared to some of the more well established fields where you know, that's more, you have to be very specific and know everything in order to to fit in then because so much is happening the people who read your proposal will in many cases not be experts in this specific area that you are proposing to write on. So if you can talk about the broad problem and then you have already in a strong position.
[00:14:25] Andy: so I think this is a really excellent point and it's something where the policy and legal field, I think, is quite different from the technical field in that really there's so many issues now that are just almost completely unexplored. So we're really entering a new sort of frontier of exploration of all these interesting policy issues: the expansion to the moon, the the issues with space traffic management, the extraction of resources from asteroids–just so many fascinating issues to deal with.
But [00:15:00] I think a common issue that I see, particularly for people who are looking at social science type PhDs, I'm talking in, organizational science or international relations or political science, is that a PhD requires a theoretical investigation rather than a topical study. I often find that what people really want to do is they want to do study on a topic in order to gain expert knowledge about it rather than to go through the process of testing a social science theory. So I think, I mean, I've experienced with several mentees that they have this kind of rude awakening that, oh, I now understand that I need to research the literature, you know, look at framework A and theory B, and then find a case study to test it on, and the PhD is about the theory, it's not about the subject. So [00:16:00] how does that work in your area then with space law, to what extent is it like that or not?
[00:16:05] Hjalte: I feel uh, what you just said, I think I can very much recognize that also as I don't feel it as a rude awakening, but at least it was, it's a learning for me through my project. Also, maybe I came from a background as a consultant, right? So we solve problems. That's what I've been doing in my career. So I also very much at first, I think, attacked space traffic management and these traffic interactions that I work with as a problem that we needed to solve. So I'm focusing on the kind of the issue and not so much on the theoretical framework. And It's less important in law compared to other social sciences. We don't have that much methodological rigor. That's difficult to say.
[00:16:47] Andy: I can't say either.
[00:16:49] Hjalte: In law we don't focus. We have the legal method and no one really knows what that means. So it's less important than in all sorts of fields, but it's still true that when you do research, you're not a [00:17:00] consultant. You're something different.
So you need to have this Yeah, this broad theoretical development as part of your PhD, right? And that was also something I feel like I learned through my PhD that I'm not just working with this issue of space traffic management. I'm also trying to develop space law as a legal discipline. I'm trying to look at our methods and tools, right? It is part of what you do as a PhD as well. So I think that's a good point.
[00:17:29] Andy: And of course, in many cases, by studying the theory or the law on a particular case, you then learn lots about that subject, and you also become an expert in it, and you can achieve this kind of expert knowledge, which is fine, but in many cases, it's not so possible. And actually, in my own PhD I studied a methodological question about organizational science, essentially, that was very general and it was super interesting to me. But yeah, I realized that, I wasn't actually developing kind of expert knowledge on a specific [00:18:00] field. It was more about method and technique. I think that there's different career options, right, that you can take. So, you can study a social science PhD, learn about theory, and that will be a good transition into academia, where you can then have freedom to go on and develop.
Or if you pick a more sort of applied subject, this serves you well to then go into a route like with a non profit, a think tank, and there's plenty of developing roles here now, or into government. So yeah, I think there's different options. So let's,
[00:18:37] Hjalte: I really think also, I think it's a good point that right now space is kind of, expanding, of course, quantitatively, we're doing a lot more, but it's also expanding qualitatively, if that makes sense. So many new roles that was not necessarily part of the space industry before becomes part also from humanist backgrounds we'll need a broader set [00:19:00] of skills.
I'm, for example, also right now engaged in a research proposal with with a group from cultural studies. I'm trying to look at the different ways we imagine space. And I think. There will be more and more of these broad broader looks into space and we will need this because we are discussing right now we are kind of, negotiating the narrative of what is space for humankind, right?
We have a lot of discussion on, about security suddenly becomes very central. We have commercialization, but we also have the kind of old ideological ideas about space for all of, so this negotiation is not something that can be handled just by the engineers, so to speak, and also not just by the lawyers, of course. This conversation is something that will need people from basically all disciplines.
[00:19:46] Andy: yeah, absolutely. I mean, so we're on the last day of August 2023 and just a couple of weeks ago. I was sitting with my kids–watching live–the Indian [00:20:00] moon lander event. And, as we were watching it, it just really struck me that this is a sort of completely different moment to some of the other launches that we've watched, which have been to do with NASA and Artemis, or we've watched some of the SpaceX launches. And, you know, now this is India and yeah, it just made me think that this is, opening up space exploration to a completely different culture. And, there's so many interesting discussions and issues there that you can have with that. So yeah, it's really fascinating time.
So let's, let's talk about your particular subject then. So one of the biggest challenges, right, in the space sector is dealing with this massive increase in space traffic, particularly in low Earth orbit, so you can tally up the filings for spectrum at the International Telecommunications Union, and you can reach almost half a million satellites just in the next decade.
So, you've been studying [00:21:00] now the subject of space traffic management. So what is your view about where this is heading? And what are some of the challenges to come up with a sensible regulatory scheme for low Earth orbit?
[00:21:14] Hjalte: It's almost a dangerous thing to ask, that's something we could talk about, I guess, for the next 24 hours. But to me, I started out with this idea that I would look into the institutional setups to solve this problem of space traffic management. So when I came into this, I planned to look at compare something like the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, where would be the right place for us to have a global institution to institute a regulatory framework for space travel management?
But very early in my research I realized not many people in the space industry or in academia believed that this would be possible in the shorter or midterm. It's just, we're not in a geopolitical climate where we are likely [00:22:00] to see a treaty for space. We haven't had a global treaty since the middle of the seventies, right. So to me, it's, it sounds like a bit of a, not a dead end, then something that we will get to find different paths to a global regime. So what I've ended up spending the last two years on is looking to alternatives to treaty based global regimes. So what are the ways we could have something that's global because, that's not based on an international treaty.
The reason why it has to be global is traffic is basically what we could call a coordination problem, right? You don't care whether you go on the left side of the right side of the road. What's important is that we agree whether we go on the left on the right side, right?
So it's important that everybody follows the same system. The reason why we can go with 100 kilometers an hour on the motorway is because we know everybody else follows the same basic rules. And it's very much the same with these traffic rules. So we need to [00:23:00] have some way of coordinating globally, without the most obvious tool, that would be a treaty, because we are not likely to get that anytime soon. I've been looking into to all our approaches, trying to look at customary law. Can these laws, can these traffic rules emerge from conduct over time? Like we've seen it historically from Law of the Sea, for example. But I'm also trying to look at some other fields, for example, looking to internet governance and how the global internet is, amazingly enough, interoperable. It works globally: we can access Chinese websites or American websites. That works without any international treaties to govern.
Yeah, I guess I don't have a, I don't have a solution. I'm not going to put down a model treaty or put down a clear suggestion: this is going to be the way forward for space traffic management. But what I do hope to lay out is some alternative paths [00:24:00] that might work or that we might try to walk down to, to get to globally rules for space traffic.
[00:24:13] Andy: That's great, I was just going to say that, so the space policymakers will read at the end or, they'll go to some presentations where your ideas will be presented and somehow they'll be absorbed into the general corpus of knowledge and ideas floating around there. So yeah, that's why I think that these types of studies are important for us. And, you know, from my own experience of working at the UN, working at COPUOS, I try and read as much as possible to give the insight and the ideas, because the solution is never very straightforward.
Yeah, that's some great insight. So let's talk about the future now. [00:25:00] Where do you see this career path taking you? Or, I mean, what, what are your plans? Or in general, what, what could a person with a PhD in space law do afterwards?
[00:25:14] Hjalte: So that's a very timely question. Of course, having three months back on my current project is something I spent quite some time working on and thinking about. And I feel like there's a lot of interesting ways to go from here. Because, I now feel like I've built up that expert knowledge that I felt like I didn't have before.
And, I also learned that I want to do research, so that's also not a given. You can do, it's like, you can go in and do a PhD to get to go to policy or go to work in the ministry or something else. So it's also a way to, I guess, a PhD is also a way to test if research is the right kind of life for you for now.
And for me I want to continue doing my research. And there's so [00:26:00] much happening in space that it's more a question of what is the angle you want to pursue? Yeah, so for example for me I'm considering whether this growing focus on security, I'm very curious about it. I don't have any kind of military background, security background. But that's certainly a place in Europe right now where you can get to do research because there's such a big focus on it. Both from the European side and also nationally here in Denmark. So if one is interested in space law and security questions or space policy and security questions, I think there's a lot of opportunities right now to pursue that.
[00:26:39] Andy: Excellent. So there's a kind of realization that I think people come to once, PhD. And, you know, this is now thinking about your sort of post PhD career. So, one path that you can take right as you can be an academic, or you can work [00:27:00] for a think tank, and you're doing research and you're becoming a subject matter expert on a certain topic. And you may be involved in space policy, for example, by being called as an expert witness to a government panel, or you might work on a report that gets submitted to a high level forum like the UN, but it's likely that you won't be the person that is behind the scenes actually making the policy or deciding what's in it. And I think that these are two kind of archetypes that I try and get people to think about and say, okay, what would you gain most satisfaction from?
Do you want to be the person behind the scenes working for a government, let's say. Who is deciding what is in the policy and putting all the pieces together. And that is very impactful. Or do you want to be the person who is knowing everything about all the details of all the governance schemes for space traffic [00:28:00] management, but you're not going to be the one making the impact. So do you have any thoughts on that? Have you conceptualized your career In that sort of way?
[00:28:11] Hjalte: yeah, I have, I have been thinking also because I also really like the idea of having an impact. I mean, when you spend so much time on an issue, you also want to get that knowledge into doing something good for the world, right? And, of course, releasing academic articles is important, but it's true if you're more directly involved in policy as a government representative or something like that, you can actually help pen the solution.
Yeah, I think actually maybe right now in space policy, these two roles are closer to each other than they might be in many other fields, because, all around the world, we are getting a new space agencies are being set up, countries are suddenly getting space policies. Here in Denmark, [00:29:00] we had our first space law and first, our first space strategy just a few years ago. Right. And that means that around in ministries and departments, think tanks, people are building this from scratch. So they kind of have to also work, do a lot of research in that way. Right. And it's not very strictly necessarily defined in, in structures. So you have to make that up as you go, to some extent.
So I think you can actually go into a policy job or go into a job in, in many countries go into a public job and still do a lot of research and still have to formulate these new things, if that, if that makes sense. And also you also get many chances as an academic to actually be asked about these things because the experts are not necessarily sitting around in the authorities as they are no, so they will reach out to you. I feel like they do that a lot to, to just here in Denmark, for example.[00:30:00]
[00:30:00] Andy: yeah, that is really good insight. I think that, yeah, the space policy and law field is still relatively small compared to the size of the issue that governments are facing. And, yeah, if I think about the climate subject, for example, I mean, you know, there's a huge corpus of climate researchers and environmental scientists, and, there's many, many people to pick from if you need an expert, whereas I think in the space sector, it's still relatively small. You know, now is a really great time actually to to be getting into it.
[00:30:30] Hjalte: And maybe a note on that that's especially true in smaller countries, but I think it's generally true. That's a good chance to become the expert in this field simply because it's so new and so small. So we need a lot of people who want to go in there and get nerdy with some specific subjects. And there might not be more than 10 other people who's deep in the subject like you are when you are done after just three years, which is also amazing, right? Then you get to sit in all the [00:31:00] working groups and you get to talk to the other experts.
[00:31:04] Andy: So, it's been great to talk to you, Halte, so I usually try and wrap up these discussions with your kind of inspirational thoughts. We're, we're all just little workers in this kind of giant picture, and I always try and get people to think about what's your epic meaning. So, you know, we're all part of a bigger picture. So what are your thoughts on this? Where are we going and what's the strategic direction and how do you fit in there?
[00:31:33] Hjalte: Well, some clever old Roman person said that wherever humans go civilization go and where there's civilization, there's law. And for me one of the things that changes for right now in low earth orbit is that it becomes part of human civilization. So it was a wilderness where you traveled and lone missions just a few years ago.
And that's just changing the character of low earth orbit is becoming just [00:32:00] another human environment, human dominated environment. It's already at a dangerous hazard anywhere in space. But now, actually, when you move in lower orbit, the most hazardous thing is the debris and the other satellites from other humans.
Now it sounds more negative than positive. I mean this in a positive way also. It's suddenly part of our civilization, parts of our environment. And that also means we have responsibility for it. And I think it's kind of important these days. It's not just the responsibility of some small working group, technical, expert communities, but it's become part of something that we discuss globally and broadly in society.
So. It's something very close to my heart to try to talk about this in a way that regular people understand. And so they feel they can have an opinion about for example space debris, have an opinion about space traffic. I don't think it's something we should just define in small technical communities.
I think we should have a public discussion about this. [00:33:00] And this goes for a lot of issues, right? Right now, there's gonna be, there's a lot of tension, for example with our dear space billionaires, right? So, I think a lot of people feel a little bit left out or powerless that these billionaires can just send off their rockets and can we not regulate that at all? And we kind of need to have a discussion about this. How do we want to do the things? And not just in, in the small communities but more broadly in order also to avoid a backlash, a tech backlash to order or space backlash, which we might experience if we don't invite people in.
[00:33:36] Andy: Well, that was a very inspirational thought to close on. So thank you so much, Hjalte. It's been a great pleasure to talk to you. And I wish you the greatest success and good luck for the final months of your PhD. So thanks
[00:33:51] Hjalte: Thank you very much, Andy. Thanks. Take care.
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Shownotes
Title: Should you do a PhD in space policy or law? Advice from Hjalte Osborn Frandsen.
Bio: After obtaining M.Sc. in International Law, Economics and Management and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from University of Copenhagen, Hjalte spend a decade working as a management consultant at the nexus of technological change, sustainability, and governance. Driven by a deep-seated passion for space law and policy, Hjalte re-entered academia three years ago, embarking on a Ph.D. journey in the field of Space Law & Policy. Hjalte’s Ph.D. project explores avenues for better governance of the increasingly congested and contested region of Low Earth Orbit.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hjalteosbornfrandsen/
Disclaimer: All guests are talking in their personal capacity and are not representing any official position of their former or current employing organization.
Episode Summary: In this episode of the Space Policy Pioneers Podcast, host Andy Williams, Director of Science in Space, interviews space policy expert HjalteOsborn Frandsen. They discuss different career paths in space policy, the skills needed for success, and delve into the question of whether pursuing a PhD in the field is necessary. Hjalte shares his journey from a legal and consulting background into the space policy research field and his current work on space traffic management. They also discuss the challenges in addressing the rapid increase in space traffic, especially in low Earth orbit, and the potential future of this segment of policy, but also where the industry is heading and its need for a diverse range of professionals from various disciplines.
Episode Guide
00:05 Introduction to the Space Policy Pioneers Podcast
01:16 The Journey into Space Policy
01:41 Transitioning from Business Consulting to Space Policy
02:15 The Decision to Pursue a PhD in Space Policy
05:01 The Challenges and Rewards of a PhD
08:10 The Role of a PhD in the Space Sector
08:35 The Process of Crafting a Research Proposal
20:34 The Future of Space Traffic Management
24:57 Career Paths after a PhD in Space Law
31:12 Closing Thoughts and Future Aspirations
Links and Resources
University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law: https://jura.ku.dk/english/
Hjalte’s profile at Copenhagen: https://jura.ku.dk/english/staff/find-a-researcher/?pure=en/persons/389443
A million paper satellites: https://www.outerspaceinstitute.ca/docs/One%20million%20(paper)%20satellites%20-%20Accepted%20Version%20.pdf
International Telecommunications Union (ITU). https://www.itu.int/
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). https://www.icao.int/
Law of Sea: https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf
Internet Governance: https://www.internetgovernance.org/what-is-internet-governance/
United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/copuos/index.html
Danish Space Law and Policy: https://ufm.dk/en/research-and-innovation/space-and-denmark
Hjalte’s Publications - All Open Access!
Frandsen, H. O. 2023, Towards Right-of-Way Rules in Orbit: Principles & Parameters for Sustainable Space Traffic, Air and Space Law, vol 48(3), pp. 297 – 318, https://doi.org/10.54648/aila2023042
Frandsen, H. O. 2022, Customary International Law as a Vessel for Global Accord: The Case of Customary Rules-of- the-Road for Governing the Orbital Highways of Earth, Journal of Air Law and Commerce, vol 87, pp. 705-757, https://doi.org/10.25172/jalc.87.4.3
Frandsen, H. O. 2022, Looking for the Rules-of-the-Road of Outer Space: A search for basic traffic rules in treaties, guidelines and standards, Journal of Space Safety Engineering, vol 9(2), pp. 231-238, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsse.2022.02.002
Frandsen, H. O. 2022, Governing Outer Space – legal issues mounting at the final frontier, Danish Institute for International Studies: https://www.diis.dk/en/research/governing-outer-space-legal-issues-mounting-the-final-frontier
