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Who Will Own Mars?

posted by CoolHand on Friday March 31 2017, @05:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the martian-gold-rush-of-2029 dept.

Anonymous writes:

http://www.autodidacts.io/who-will-own-mars/

Everyone's excited about rockets to Mars, and each SpaceX launch brings that dream closer to reality. Musk and others are putting a lot of money and brainpower on the technical problem of getting people to Mars. Less sensational topics, such as surviving on Mars, receive less attention — but plenty of money and serious thought, because there's no way to get around them.

But there's another important question which isn't getting much attention:

Who will own Mars, and how will it be governed?

Does Mars belong to the people who get there first? To the highest bidder? To all the people of Earth?

Does Mars belong to Earth, or does Mars belong to Mars? Does it belong to the Sun? To the Martian microbiome, if there is one? (What are the indigenous rights of microbes, I wonder?)

Who will be in charge of Mars once the colonists arrive? If Mars turns out to have valuable resources, who gets them? And if a Mars colony is to govern itself, what kind of government would it have?

The Mars colonization project is driven by the ultra rich. And those who want to stake their claim on Mars may rather the rest of us didn't think too much about the little problem of who owns the planet next door, and why.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Friday March 31 2017, @09:21PM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 31 2017, @09:21PM (#487335) Journal
    Utterly laughable. Next you'll be claiming that we can brew in space [nasa.gov] and underwater [vice.com] as well. The Mighty Buzzard is well aware of the impossibility of these tasks!
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  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday March 31 2017, @10:58PM (1 child)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Friday March 31 2017, @10:58PM (#487368) Journal

    The Mighty Buzzard is well aware of the impossibility of these tasks!

    Interesting speculation, that the TMB could be aware of something that does not exist. De gustibus non disputandum est!

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 01 2017, @12:32AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 01 2017, @12:32AM (#487395) Journal

      Interesting speculation, that the TMB could be aware of something that does not exist.

      My argument is a paragon of mathematical rigor. You will never see a better argument ever.