Does Asteroid Mining Violate Space Law? (Libs say yes)

Yahoo News ^ | 4/24/2012 | Yahoo News

[Dallas59]

Several well-known billionaires are forming the new company Planetary Resources with plans to send a robotic spacecraft to mine precious metals from an asteroid and bring them back to Earth. Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and their business partners say the enterprise will "add trillions to the global GDP."

But to whom do those trillions belong — the company, or everyone? Does a private company have a right to stake claim to an asteroid, or are celestial bodies such as the moon, planets and asteroids the communal property of all Earthlings?

"The law on this is not settled and not clear," said Henry Hertzfeld, professor of space policy and international affairs at George Washington University. "There are lots of opinions on the status here, and nobody is necessarily right because it's complicated."

The legal ambiguity hasn't needed to be addressed before, Hertzfeld said, because no company has previously come forward with a serious asteroid mining mission plan and the funds to back it. When the debate over space property rights is forced to ensue, old international wounds will likely be reopened.

[Dallas59]

Asteroid mining causes Space Warming./s

[FlingWingFlyer]

I didn’t think it was possible but the whining commie libs become bigger PITAs everyday. It must be hell to be miserable ALL OF THE TIME.

[ClearCase_guy]

communal property of all Earthlings?

The following items fall into that category:
Your house
Your car
Your paycheck
Your 401(k)

... and asteroids

[umgud]

You can bet the environmental impact reports will be out of this world.

[Riley]

Can we just deport them all to Guam and enforce a Maritime Exclusion Zone in perpetuity? This is getting silly.

[Dallas59]

Best current estimates appear to put the number of asteroids that are 1 kilometer or larger at somewhere between 1.5 million and 2 million.
If you consider asteroid 1/10th that size (100 meters across and up) the number would likely be close to 100 times that many ( 150 million +)
If you include 10 meter rocks (the size of a small house), the number would increase by another factor of 100 or so - into the 10s of billions.

Haven’t seen a good estimate for the number of comets/icy bodies there might be in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. If you stick to bodies 1 km across and up, you would likely have several tens of billions, possibly into the trillions.

[Clock King]

They hate their own life, and b/c of that, hate all life and everyone else. They want to die, but they want to take the whole planet with them.

“What makes you think they want to live?” - Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

[Eccl 10:2]

GUILTY !!!

[cripplecreek]

I knew this was coming.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

But to whom do those trillions belong — the company, or everyone? Does a private company have a right to stake claim to an asteroid, or are celestial bodies such as the moon, planets and asteroids the communal property of all Earthlings?

---

The Federation of course! I say let them mine it. As long they follow the prime directive and Scotty doesn't issue general order 24, everything is good.

[Bibman]

I think we need to send Sean Connery to investigate!

[Telepathic Intruder]

Progressivism...doing everything it can to return us to the stone age.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Progressivism...doing everything it can to return us to the stone age.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

But to whom do those trillions belong — the company, or everyone? Does a private company have a right to stake claim to an asteroid, or are celestial bodies such as the moon, planets and asteroids the communal property of all Earthlings?

Well in that case all the drug companies and oil companies and food companies and any other kind of company that uses resources from the earth including wind solar all the way down to thermal energy belongs to Earthlings NOT the Government but all Earthlings so lets go for it i want my space rocks lined up along my Driveway and flower beds !

[Drill Thrawl]

Since we have reduced NASA to mooslime outreach why don't we let the private sector go nuts?

Are there any non-gubment jobs libs won't kill?

I hate these people with a burning passion.

[freedumb2003]

Just ask Delos David Harriman or Salvor Hardin...

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

LOL you can say that again !

[capydick]

imagine if these bed wetters were around during the gold rush days

[Usagi_yo]

Save the whale, save the environment, save the earth .... and coming to our galaxy, Save the solar system.

I think our historical record kinda intimates that whoever funds it and gets there and militarizes it the most, gets to keep it.

[cripplecreek]

imagine if these bed wetters were around during the gold rush days

At this point its nothing more than a reflex to oppose with these idiots. They don't even bother to think about things any more.

If they really wanted to save the planet they would be demanding that mining and manufacturing move to space.

[Neanderthal]

"Just ask Delos David Harriman or Salvor Hardin..."

Or Lazarus Long

[freedumb2003]

>>Or Lazarus Long<<

That whole sexual thing with his mom kind of freaked me out a bit. As did the (apparent) sexual “games” with his genetic daughters/clones? (IIRC) while they were still children.

[cripplecreek]

I think our historical record kinda intimates that whoever funds it and gets there and militarizes it the most, gets to keep it.

If I were emperor I would incentivize space. Offer 100,000 acre claims on the moon for whoever sets foot there and shows an ability to develop it. I would do the same with asteroids. Anything produced and sent back to earth would be untaxed till the point of sale.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

I think the Space Law is that he who can make it to space makes the laws.

[RedMonqey]

I would say it is legal as a corporation isn't necessarily bound by treaties signed by nations.

All they have to do is move outside the nation's territorial boundaries.

And no nation “owes” Outer Space.

All they have to do go out and physically stake a claim and start mining operations it, not simply say they own it as that fellow in the article ridiculously did.

Of course, getting the material in nations that prohibit it may be a different matter...

[aruanan]

But to whom do those trillions belong — the company, or everyone? Does a private company have a right to stake claim to an asteroid, or are celestial bodies such as the moon, planets and asteroids the communal property of all Earthlings?

No, poor dear. Though they potentially exist for everyone, they actually belong to those who have the intelligence, drive, and means to get them. The act of taking and converting them from just junk floating around in space is the act that converts them to private property. Have you never read John Locke?

"Though the earth and all inferior creatures be common to all men, yet every man has a 'property' in his own 'person.' This nobody has any right to but himself. The 'labor' of his body and the 'work' of his hand, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever, then he removes out of the state that Nature hath provided and left it in, he hath mixed his labor with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby make it his property. It being by him removed from the common state Nature hath placed it in, it hath by his labor something annexed to it that excludes the common right of other men. For this 'labor' being the unquestionable property of the laborer, no man but he can have a right to what that is once joined to, at least where there is enough, and as good left in common for others."
--John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, Chapter 5, Section 16 (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004)

And as far as the universe goes and all that exists within it, there is enough left in common for others. If those others don't want to get off their butts and get some for themselves or help support the enterprise of those who do, then they have no business restricting others from doing so or demanding a cut of the profit for the simple reason of having slid down the chute into this world and drawing breath.

[oldbrowser]

Does a private company have a right to stake claim to an asteroid, or are celestial bodies such as the moon, planets and asteroids the communal property of all Earthlings?

Nothing belongs to us, not even our bodies. We may control it for a time, but we can't take it with us and it will eventually return to the earth.

[C210N]

I have a suggestion for a deal with the libs...

We’ll go mining Asteroids.

They can go mining Hemorrhoids.

[andyk]

If we want to hamper space exploration and the discovery of new resources, then yes, we should consider it communal property.

[huldah1776]

We can’t even take plants across state lines and they want to bring asteroid turf here? What if there is an alien in it?

[cripplecreek]

There’s a reason why so many sci fi novels are about rebellion against earth.

[DBrow]

China and India did not sign that treaty. China also did not sign the one that says nobody can mine the seafloor unless you share with everyone.

So like China now has all the rare earth elements, if they get a good asteroid they’ll have all the platinum and iridium.

I say mine the asteroids, and when you actually have a gigaton of iron, a megaton of gold, and sixteen kilotons of platinum, agree to negotiate.

[Pontiac]

Does a private company have a right to stake claim to an asteroid, or are celestial bodies such as the moon, planets and asteroids the communal property of all Earthlings?

How can something that is not of Earth be the communal property of all Earthlings?

That is insane. If no person (Earthling or non-Earthling) has set foot or occupied this planetoid how can any individual or communal body lay claim to that which they can not physically possess.

The only law that I can see having any relevance to this argument is the law of salvage.

I would consider an asteroid analogous to a derelict ship at sea. Anyone finding the asteroid and take possession of it can claim salvage rights to the asteroid.

[DBrow]

TANSTAAFL!

[tacticalogic]

They should get all these assholes together in one place, bring back an asteroid, and say “Here, catch.”

[Kellis91789]

You’d think, wouldn’t you. Unfortunately, places like Alaska have been giving every resident a check representing a portion of the oil value removed from state lands. That sets a nasty precedent.

[cripplecreek]

They should get all these assholes together in one place, bring back an asteroid, and say “Here, catch.”

LOL Here's your freakin asteroid. Enjoy.

[rod1]

Only until George Soros can own them. Then Barry will provide mining “aid” (for the Soros-owned company) so that the mining can start sooner rather than later.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

There is only one solution; the progessives, socialists, democrats, greens, peta folk and their supporters need to be sent to a new planet.
We need to do this for the children.

[tacticalogic]

Ever read Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? :)

[RedMonqey]

The only law that I can see having any relevance to this argument is the law of salvage.

Sounds plausible to me.

I would aid in case of the asteroid goes awry and heads towards earth, they would be responsible for damages....

That is if anyone is left alive...;--)

[cripplecreek]

One of my first sci fi reading experiences.

Revolt on Alpha C

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_on_Alpha_C

[Salohcin]

It is time for us to withdraw from the Outer Space Treaty and to update the 1856 Guano Islands Act to apply to resources found on asteroids and other celestial bodies.

I propose amending the 1856 law to read:

Whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of minerals on any asteroid, moon, or planet, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other Government, and not occupied by the citizens of any other Government, and takes peaceable possession thereof, and occupies the same, such asteroid or territory within 50 miles of the point of occupation on such moon or planet may, at the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to the United States.

[BikerJoe]

Ever read Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? :)

Throw another rock Mike.

[tacticalogic]

Throw another rock Mike.

Wye?

[Godzilla]

[Lurker]

Drop the “at the discretion of the President” crap and I’m with you.

[GreatRoad]

Possession is 99% of the law. Finders keepers losers weepers.

[6SJ7]

There’s a reason why so many sci fi novels are about rebellion against earth.

In Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", the lunar colonists use mass drivers to drop meteorites on the earth. ("Here's your tax payment!").

[sten]

any financial benefit from mining asteroids would obviously belong to those that risked finances and/or worked on the endeavor.

obviously.

only the mentally diseased on the left could think those that take no risks, endure no hardships, and contribute no work deserve anything

and no, the ‘universe’ is not the property of the people of the earth. that’s patently absurd.