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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday April 14 2020, @08:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the that's-just-loony dept.

Trump signs an executive order allowing mining the moon and asteroids:

In 2015, the Obama administration signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA, or H.R. 2262) into law. This bill was intended to "facilitate a pro-growth environment for the developing commercial space industry" by making it legal for American companies and citizens to own and sell resources that they extract from asteroids and off-world locations (like the moon, Mars or beyond).

On April 6th, the Trump administration took things a step further by signing an executive order that formally recognizes the rights of private interests to claim resources in space. This order, titled "Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources," effectively ends the decades-long debate that began with the signing of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967.

This order builds on both the CSLCA and Space Directive-1 (SD-1), which the Trump administration signed into law on December 11th, 2017. It establishes that "Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law," and that the United States does not view space as a "global commons."


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by canopic jug on Tuesday April 14 2020, @12:48PM (8 children)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 14 2020, @12:48PM (#982551) Journal

    Russia also has mineral rights there via the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, so no one can complain about the mining. But there is enough disparity between the strengths of the two militaries that they just are in the habit of taking what they want, assuming there is enough fuel in the holds left over from what fills the taxis and cars of various cousins and other relatives.

    Russia's not asserting a full claim, yet, but is kind of acting like they will some day. Even though they are signatories on the treaty, it looks like they dispute it. A few years ago they did pester Svalbard [aldrimer.no] and again a few years after that [icds.ee]. Electronic intrusions, such as jamming GPS and other signals, are common place even more recently.

    If Moscow Mitch and the rest of his toadies are able to finish their work on the US, then NATO will soon be a non-question and Europe will be open for the taking. In a move against Europe, the obvious course of action would be to take the top part of the North Calotte within 24 hours and dig in, plus maybe strategic weak points like Talinn, Helsinki, Åland and Stockholm at the same time. Then from that foothold, they could roll the rest of the penninsula over in short order.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Tuesday April 14 2020, @01:02PM (1 child)

    by driverless (4770) on Tuesday April 14 2020, @01:02PM (#982565)

    the obvious course of action would be to take the top part of the North Calotte within 24 hours and dig in, plus maybe strategic weak points like Talinn, Helsinki, Åland and Stockholm at the same time. Then from that foothold, they could roll the rest of the penninsula over in short order.

    You mean try and take over countries that have surströmming, lutfisk, and rakfisk and can import hákarl if needed? Not even the Russians are crazy enough to brave that.

    • (Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:35PM

      by looorg (578) on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:35PM (#983026)

      Have you smelled Surströmming? Teargas wasn't as bad as that even with the mask taken off. I think I would rather get invaded by the ruskies then have them open enough cans of that again.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:33PM

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:33PM (#982614)

    France and UK have nukes - invasion of the Scandinavian peninsula would be a big risk. OTOH it would be interesting, to see Russia bogged down fighting Scandinavian insurgents for the next 50 years. I believe the Scandinavian countries still have conscription for exactly this reason.

    What would be the strategic benefit to Russia? North sea oil is pretty much done for. Better to retake South East Europe and build influence in the Middle East to get access to the Black sea and Red sea oil fields (oh look at that! this is exactly what they have done). This way they can attempt to build in monopoly over oil a la OPEC...

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 15 2020, @11:08AM (4 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday April 15 2020, @11:08AM (#982993) Journal

    C'mon, canopic. This kind of flight of fancy was fun during the Cold War, but now it's silly. Russia is a pale, pale shadow of the Soviet Union. It cannot invade and conquer Europe.

    If you want to game out geopolitical scenarios, at least choose one that is within the realm of the plausible, like "How is Russia going to keep from being swallowed by China from the East, in great big gulps at a time?" There are documentaries on Prime or Netflix about how Beijing functionally controls swathes of Siberia already.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:06PM (3 children)

      by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:06PM (#983009) Journal

      Russia is a pale, pale shadow of the Soviet Union.

      Yes, though the strength is relative. The European countries are also a pale, pale shadow of the force they were even a few decades ago. So it is not a reduced Russia going against a strong and mighty military in Europe. It is Russia going against a weak and enfeebled Europe with few to no soldiers and the few that are there are mostly out of shape and smuggling trackers^W phones [thedrive.com] around with them, if they even bother to show up for exercises.

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      Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:34PM (2 children)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:34PM (#983025) Journal

        Most European countries still have a universal draft and robust industrial bases to supply the materiel of war. Russia doesn't. And for all the hullabaloo, Europe still has NATO with the US in it. Russia has, well, Russia.

        Russia would get badly spanked on Day 1 of the glorious Putin offensive.

        So, as an exercise in, "Hey, imagine if..." it's weak beer. There are a couple real games to be had, though. India vs. Pakistan, This Time It's Nuclear! China, The Once and Future Middle Kingdom. North Korea, The Mad Dog Must Be Put Down.

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        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:45PM (1 child)

          by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:45PM (#983029) Journal

          There are a couple real games to be had, though. India vs. Pakistan, This Time It's Nuclear! China

          There are a lot of proxies from around the world feeding that fight there. But of the three conflicting parties, China seems to be working effectively to play the other parties off against each other so that it can stay out of the limelight as it continues to annex parts of that territory for its Belt and Road. However, they are not the only country goading the other agressors so it does have potential to get out of control in a way that adversely affects the rest of the planet.

          --
          Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday April 16 2020, @11:42AM

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday April 16 2020, @11:42AM (#983528) Journal

            Nobody around the world cares about India vs. Pakistan but the two principal parties. China is not playing them off against each other because it is firmly on the side of Pakistan, having fought more than one war with India in modern times. Beijing's Belt and Road project mostly follows the old Silk Road, which does not run through Pakistan or India.

            India and Pakistan, beyond being adversaries to each other, are rivals to China and counterweights to it.

            Twenty years ago when George W. Bush was talking about invading Iraq on a flimsy pretext I was shouting to the hills that America and NATO needed to enlist China's neighbors to encircle it. They are the existential threat, not a bunch of bearded tribesmen scratching rocks in the hills of Central Asia. We should have done that, and now we are beginning to count the cost. The stand-off with the Soviet Union will look like a cakewalk in comparison.

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            Washington DC delenda est.