Star Trek at 60: How a 1960s TV Show Shaped Space Law and Ambition

September 8 marks 60 years since the first episode of Star Trek aired, and its influence extends far beyond entertainment. For Michelle Hanlon, a space law professor at the University of Mississippi, the show's original series was a blueprint for a future that is still unfolding.

Hanlon points out that many of the show's imagined technologies, like handheld communicators, have become everyday realities. But for her, the deeper legacy is its idealism: a vision of a colorblind, united humanity exploring space for self-improvement and the preservation of Earth. That message, she says, has persisted through every iteration of the franchise.

The show also grappled with complex questions decades ahead of its time. Hanlon recalls an episode where Kirk and Spock disable a robotic army by presenting a logical paradox, a storyline that anticipated modern debates about artificial intelligence and what makes humans distinct from machines.

For space lawyers, Hanlon explains, the show's fictional United Federation of Planets serves as a long-term goal. The real-world foundation is the Outer Space Treaty, ratified in 1967, which over 100 nations have signed, committing to use space only for peaceful purposes. Hanlon compares the treaty to the US Constitution: a set of basic principles meant to guide future generations, even as they build new rules for life beyond Earth.

She notes that while Cold War rivals like the US and Russia eventually cooperated on the International Space Station, collaboration with China on lunar missions remains a distant prospect. Still, she argues that space is so hostile and difficult that meaningful settlement will require international cooperation.

Hanlon's personal connection to Star Trek is profound. Growing up overseas as a child of foreign service parents, she watched reruns religiously. Years later, actor William Shatner, who also played a lawyer on Boston Legal, invited fans to share how his work affected them. Hanlon wrote him a physical letter, which led to her inclusion in one of his books and gave her a platform to discuss space law.

With so little existing regulation, Hanlon says space law is a field of immense possibility. The entire framework is just a few pages long, yet it governs everything from satellite weather tracking to global communications. As humanity prepares to go further, she believes the first step is recognizing that we are going up, and that we must shape how we do it to create the future we want.