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A recent action by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is stirring up some moon dust in a legal debate about private companies setting up shop on the moon.

In late 2014, the FAA's Office of the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) responded favorably to a Bigelow Aerospace's "payload review" request. This query related to commercial development of the moon. Some view the verdict as a necessary step toward creating a legal framework for businesses to set up shop on the moon. But it's also clear more legal conversations are in the offing.

Without a legal framework, proponents of lunar business say that investors won't develop the financial and technical wherewithal to build industry on the moon. There's need for assurance from the United States government that private-sector activities will be approved and protected when they aim for the moon. [Bigelow Aerospace's Inflatable Space Station Idea (Photos)]

The FAA/AST decision also involved other federal agencies, including NASA, the Department of State and the Department of Defense. Bigelow Aerospace was assured that the AST would use its launch-licensing authority, as best it can, to protect private sector assets on the moon. The intent is to provide a safe environment for U.S. firms to conduct peaceful commercial activities on the moonwithout fear of harmful interference from other AST licensees.

"This response is a modest yet important initial step toward creating an environment that will encourage both today's and tomorrow's entrepreneurs to focus their resources on the moon," said Mike Gold, Director of Washington, D.C., operations and business growth for Bigelow Aerospace, LLC.

Bigelow Aerospace is keen on deploying, testing and utilizing the firm's expandable habitats in low Earth orbit before landing them on the moon, Gold told Space.com.

"Decisions such as the AST's payload review response help to encourage continued investment by Bigelow Aerospace in lunar development, and while a great deal of work remains to be done, we believe that a private sector lunar settlement could be established much more quickly and affordably than most would suspect," Gold said.

The FAA/AST action creates a number of issues that need addressing, said Michael Listner, the founder and principal of the firm Space Law and Policy Solutions, based in New Hampshire.

"Based on what I've read in media reports, it appears that while the FAA has taken steps to support Bigelow's future establishment of lunar modules on the moon, it also recognizes that Title 51, Chapter 509 (Commercial Space Launch Act) as currently amended limits their ability to fully endorse those plans through the grant of a launch license," Listner said.

Listner said the path forward is two-fold:

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Moon Space Law: Legal Debate Swirls Around Private Lunar Ventures

February 24, 2015

Catherine (Cady) Coleman, Expedition 26 flight engineer, performs calibrations on the VO2max Portable Pulmonary Function System (PPFS). The PPFS is located next to the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation System (CEVIS) so astronauts can measure their oxygen consumption while riding the CEVIS. (Credit: NASA)

Provided by Laura Niles, NASA/Johnson Space Center

In February, our attention turns to romantic matters of the heart. As American Heart Month, this month is also a time to focus on heart health and a perfect excuse to start working out to improve your physical fitness. Astronauts on the International Space Station are working to keep their hearts healthy too, and at the same time they are generating data to advance knowledge of health and fitness in space and on Earth.

Astronauts exercise regularly while in space to maintain muscle, bone, and cardiovascular health and fitness and to remain fit and strong enough to perform physically demanding tasks such as extravehicular activity. Scientists have frequently measured the effectiveness of that exercise during short spaceflights.

Now, researchers have assessed exercise on longer spaceflights with the help of astronauts on the space station, measuring their VO2 peak before, during and after missions of four to five months.

[STORY: ISS adding more spaceship parking]

Widely accepted as the best measure of cardiovascular fitness, VO2peak, also called VO2max, is a measure of peak oxygen uptake. That represents the highest amount of oxygen your body can use to produce energy during exercise. Oxygen is used by cells to provide the energy to perform work and a more aerobically fit persons cells take up and use more oxygen, explains Meghan Downs, senior researcher at NASAs Exercise Physiology Laboratory.

VO2peak is measured using a bicycle test, with astronauts starting at low intensity and gradually increasing pedaling resistance over a short period of time until they could no longer pedal the bike. The tests were performed three months before launch to the space station; after approximately 15 days in space; every 30 days throughout flight; and one, 10 and 30 days following return to Earth.

According to the results, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, VO2peak decreased by an average of 17 percent by day 15 in space, but then gradually increased during flight. Most astronauts never recovered their preflight V02peak levels during the mission, but a few were able to maintain or even improve VO2peak during flight with frequent bouts of high intensity exercise.

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How astronauts exercise on the ISS