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Does Asteroid Mining Violate Space Law? (Libs say yes)
Yahoo News ^ | 4/24/2012 | Yahoo News

Posted on 04/24/2012 6:01:59 PM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: asteroid; capitalism; law; mining
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Asteroid mining causes Space Warming./s
1 posted on 04/24/2012 6:02:05 PM PDT by Dallas59
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To: Dallas59

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.


2 posted on 04/24/2012 6:04:44 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (It's time for the 47% to start paying their "fair share" of income taxes.)
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To: Dallas59
communal property of all Earthlings?

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

... and asteroids

3 posted on 04/24/2012 6:05:14 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Like Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin has become simply a stick with which to beat Whites.)
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To: Dallas59

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


4 posted on 04/24/2012 6:05:38 PM PDT by umgud (No Rats, No Rino's)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

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


5 posted on 04/24/2012 6:06:56 PM PDT by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: 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.


6 posted on 04/24/2012 6:09:34 PM PDT by Dallas59 (President Robert Gibbs 2009-2011)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

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.


7 posted on 04/24/2012 6:10:00 PM PDT by Clock King (Ellisworth Toohey was right: My head's gonna explode.)
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To: Dallas59

GUILTY !!!

8 posted on 04/24/2012 6:10:08 PM PDT by Eccl 10:2
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To: Dallas59

I knew this was coming.


9 posted on 04/24/2012 6:10:40 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: Dallas59
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.
10 posted on 04/24/2012 6:11:43 PM PDT by Idaho_Cowboy (Give me liberty, or give me death!)
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To: Dallas59

I think we need to send Sean Connery to investigate!


11 posted on 04/24/2012 6:11:59 PM PDT by Bibman (Tea Party since 1976)
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To: Dallas59

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


12 posted on 04/24/2012 6:12:41 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The right thing is not always the popular thing)
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To: Dallas59

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


13 posted on 04/24/2012 6:12:55 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The right thing is not always the popular thing)
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To: Dallas59
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 !

14 posted on 04/24/2012 6:13:46 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK (Any man may make a mistake ; none but a fool will persist in it . { Latin proverb })
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To: Dallas59
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.

15 posted on 04/24/2012 6:14:18 PM PDT by Drill Thrawl (The United States of America, a banana republic since 1913)
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To: Dallas59

Just ask Delos David Harriman or Salvor Hardin...


16 posted on 04/24/2012 6:15:00 PM PDT by freedumb2003 ('RETRO' Abortions = performed on 84th trimester individuals who think killing babies is a "right.")
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To: Telepathic Intruder

LOL you can say that again !


17 posted on 04/24/2012 6:17:07 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK (Any man may make a mistake ; none but a fool will persist in it . { Latin proverb })
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To: Dallas59

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


18 posted on 04/24/2012 6:20:55 PM PDT by capydick (''Life's tough.......it's even tougher if you're stupid.'')
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To: Dallas59

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.


19 posted on 04/24/2012 6:21:02 PM PDT by Usagi_yo
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To: capydick
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.
20 posted on 04/24/2012 6:28:39 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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