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 ...
Or Lazarus Long
>>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.
I think the Space Law is that he who can make it to space makes the laws.
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...
"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."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.
--John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, Chapter 5, Section 16 (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004)
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.
I have a suggestion for a deal with the libs...
We’ll go mining Asteroids.
They can go mining Hemorrhoids.
If we want to hamper space exploration and the discovery of new resources, then yes, we should consider it communal property.
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?
There’s a reason why so many sci fi novels are about rebellion against earth.
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.
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.
TANSTAAFL!
They should get all these assholes together in one place, bring back an asteroid, and say “Here, catch.”
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.
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.
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.
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