Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Who Owns the Asteroids?


Am I missing something here, or is the answer painfully obvious.....

Well according to a recent article in Popular Science, it is a bit more complicated than first blush would have us believe.     According to the PopSci article -  the House is holding hearings to discuss a new law to manage resource mining in space.  

In the early days of the "Space Race" an accord or "Treaty" was signed that said, in simple terms, no country or person could assume to own any celestial body.   But now the focus is on mineral rights.   There is some credence  given to having a legal framework  in place which may at the very least spur more entrepreneurial interest in the sector.   The proposed legislation, working in tandem with the earlier Outer Space Treaty, formulated in 1967,  would give U.S. companies ownership of any materials they mine from asteroids, but not ownership of the asteroid itself. 

Read the complete Popsci article HERE

5 comments:

Dave Tackett said...

Damn, you answered it; I was going to guess "me?" But seriously, wanna bet they screw it up?

TMAN2K said...

Leave it to politician to decide who owns what in outer space. Really! How can any country lay claim to a space rock and dictate laws? Utterly moronic. We are stepping over the line by laying claim to any celestial body outside of Mother Earth. Who do we think we are?

Beam Me Up said...

Screw it up is almost a gimi. But in response to Tman2k: Like the original treaty, I suspect that the initial efforts may lay in preventing a government or an individual from "owning" an asteroid say. But able to maintain an individual's right to retain ownership of whatever mineral or material that is mined off an asteroid. I know that would be one of the things that would piss me off, going to all the effort and expense of bringing back mineral components just to be told that these can not be owned.

Anonymous said...

Well, if it's headed here, whichever country(ies) gets it could claim ownership. If anyone there survives and are nationalists who want their borders respected (we know Praxis blew up, but keep to your own side), then they're on their own and anyone who survives elsewhere can focus on things like adapting to no sunlight and not having the land that ends up under the sea.

Beam Me Up said...

But you see Anon, the treaty that everyone signed in the 60s prohibits just that sort of behavior. If the U.S. doesn't honor it, or any other signatory, it becomes so much toilet paper. I honestly believe that manifest destiny at the atmosphere interface.