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Legal questions linger as governments and companies keep pushing into space:
The Perseverance rover's landing on Mars is still fresh in people's memories, privately owned companies are ferrying people and supplies into orbit, and NASA continues to work on "the most powerful rocket" it has ever built. But as world governments and private enterprises continue to eye the skies for opportunities, a SXSW panel called "Who on Earth should govern Space" makes clear that the laws dealing with space aren't evolving as fast as the technology that gets us there.
"People like to think of space as the Wild Wild West — nothing out there, there's open frontier, we can do whatever we want," said Michelle Hanlon, president of For All Moonkind, a non-profit devoted to preserving mankind's cultural heritage in space. "Unfortunately or fortunately, that's not true at all."
Hanlon was referring to the Outer Space Treaty, which was developed in 1966 and ratified by over 60 countries in early 1967. Considering the treaty was put into effect a full two years before mankind landed on the moon, it's little surprise that the document is heavy on broad principles, but light on specifics. Among its greatest hits: outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all states; states should avoid harmful contamination of space; celestial bodies shall only be used for peaceful purposes; and, perhaps most importantly, the assertion that outer space isn't subject to claims of sovereignty by Earth-bound governments.
[...] There have been efforts to more fully codify a set of rules to govern the way we approach space, including most recently the Artemis Accords signed by the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates in 2020. Ten countries are a start, but a slew of significant space-faring states — including China, India and Russia — have not bought into the largely US-brokered accord. It's hard to say exactly what (if anything) it will take for the international community to agree to a comprehensive set of guidelines for the use of outer space. But one thing is clear: With the technology to get us and keep us in space growing more advanced by the day, these are issues we can't afford to keep punting.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday March 22 2021, @05:50PM (17 children)
Who got the rights to America? The first power that got there, that could hold onto it. Spain got some, but eventually couldn't hold onto it. France did the same. Even the super power of England, eventually couldn't hold onto it.
Eventually, Mars may belong to the people of Mars. Probably not the Moon, because it likely doesn't have enough self-sustainability. Mars might, but even that is a giant question mark, with some asterisks. Still, it's always been, whomever has the ability and power to make it so, then it shall be so. Right now, it's more about, is it doable, economic, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 22 2021, @05:52PM (7 children)
There were people already here.
I hope we remember that this time as we move out to the moon and Mars.
Some people need assistants to hire some assistance.
Other people need assistance to hire some assistants.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 22 2021, @08:17PM
So what? It wasn't just the not-so-indigenous Mongoloids that were here before "modern" Europeans arrived. Whites had been navigating by boat before the Mongoloids left/got pushed out of Asia and they were likely murdered/bred out by the Mongoloids. Where's the pretentious wailing for their indigenous rights?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Monday March 22 2021, @09:58PM (5 children)
Quite true and the might makes right motto was well applied. I would be highly surprised, if we found direct evidence of life existing on Mars or the Moon. Some radio-carbon dated, what looks like a random X thing, isn't going to cut it. Some, well, if there was life here, there might have been some sort of bacterial presence as shown via these "technical voodoo" mumbojumbo. In the event there was life there, there's no reason there shouldn't be some sort of actual evidence. Sure, we're on a tropical paradise of a space rock and not all life would necessarily look like what we would think. There would be some evidence, by our definition of life.
Now, I'm definitely not "main stream" science or even main stream christian science, necessarily. Still, God didn't say, and let there be a Martian Civilization or let there be all manner of green things or anything growing on Mars. I would be surprised, if we found any evidence of life in our Solar System, other than right here on Earth. Pretty soon there will be evidence of alien life and that will be Satan masquerading as Christ.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aristarchus on Monday March 22 2021, @10:49PM
Oh, dear!
Are you sure? Mightent it be Christ, masquerading as Satan? Of course, now we know that Lucifer is actually the same as Hesperus, both are the planet Venus. So are you saying there is/was life on Venus?
Seriously, I have known Christians since they first started up, and these modern QAnon Evangelicals are quite strange. Weirder than the Pricillianists!
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday March 23 2021, @02:11AM (2 children)
Read "A Case of Conscience" by James Blish.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday March 23 2021, @03:14PM (1 child)
That's an interesting story. Not sure what you're getting at there, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday March 24 2021, @11:48AM
Going into more detail in a public forum would be a spoiler for those not familiar with it.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday March 23 2021, @01:44PM
There are many apparent answers to The Fermi Paradox. Genesis 1 could be one of them.
Genesis 2 also explains some things. [soylentnews.org]
God told Adam that He was going to make Adam a companion and that it would be a woman.
God: "This pretty lady will gather food for you, she will cook for you, and when you discover clothing, she will wash it for you. She will always agree with every decision you make and she will not nag you, and will always be the first to admit she was wrong when you've had a disagreement. She will praise you! She will bear your children. and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night to take care of them. She will never have a headache and will freely give you love and passion whenever you need it."
Adam: "What will a woman like this cost?"
God: "An arm and a leg."
Adam: "What can I get for a rib?"
Some people need assistants to hire some assistance.
Other people need assistance to hire some assistants.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 22 2021, @10:38PM (5 children)
I was going to say, Iroquois? But if this is how conservatives conceive of the world order, no wonder they are so afraid.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday March 23 2021, @03:02PM
It's history, not how I would wish things had happened. Even, if I wished things could have been different. In the event they were, I likely wouldn't exist. Throughout history, one thing can be certain, if you don't have enough power to protect yourself, you will be destroyed. Why do think a place like North Korea wanted Nuclear Weapons? It's all about the power.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday March 23 2021, @04:38PM (3 children)
It's not just conservatives - it's an unfortunate truth that has followed mankind back as far as we can track.
Go ahead - name one place on Earth where the powerful *didn't* conquer and pillage their weaker neighbors when conquest was a cheaper way to get their resources than trade. We did it in the past, and we're still doing it now, or do you imagine our ongoing military presence in the Middle East has something to do with defending freedom? Or how about the Banana Republics, where US military power was leveraged to assure the profits of American banana-growing corporations?
We tend to use puppet governments these days rather than open conquest, but the end result is very much the same.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 24 2021, @01:30AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday March 24 2021, @02:34AM (1 child)
Touche'. Though Antarctica is kind of a special case since it has few resources worth the cost of exploiting in the harsh environment. Even with nobody to steal the resources from, it wasn't worth the effort. I seriously doubt the non-exploitation treaties would have been signed if anyone really thought they could make a decent buck otherwise.
Nothing protects you from theft like having nothing worth stealing.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 24 2021, @06:17AM
Nobody has looked that hard. Treaty and the harsh environment nix that.
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Tuesday March 23 2021, @05:24AM (2 children)
The moon has one advantage -- the high ground. Throwing rocks from that high could be as good as having nukes.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday March 23 2021, @02:54PM (1 child)
I guess there could be some sort of MAD logic applied there, but all things considered, they likely won't be able to produce their own air, water, or food. At least not in amounts abundant enough to decide it's okay to destroy the place that could provide them. In fact, it wouldn't take destroying it completely, just disrupted the economics enough and/or production to really screw oneself. Even, if you decided oh, my bad, I won't do that. It won't help, if you have 6 months of air left and the quikcest they can get a ship up to you is 12 months from now, because you destroyed the means to get it there.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Tuesday March 23 2021, @04:59PM
Air should be no problem - lunar regolith is roughly 40% oxygen by mass, and the magma refinery Sadoway developed for NASA should be quite effective at extracting it, while producing steel, aluminum, magnesium, etc. as byproducts. Oxygen, aka rocket fuel (80% of Starship's propellant by mass), will probably be the most profitable export the moon will have for quite some time. Hydrogen and carbon are likely to be the stumbling blocks for self-sufficiency, as there does not appear to be a lot of convenient sources, at least near the surface. Though really, with efficient recycling that's not much of a problem for self-sufficiency, only for growth.
Ironically, fossil fuels may end up being the Moon's biggest import from Earth - not for the energy (though they'd no doubt use that too), but as an efficient way to transport carbon and hydrogen. Combine with oxygen and you've got all the water and CO2 your greenhouses could want.
Then again - there's lots of hydrocarbons floating around in the asteroid belt, which is much closer than Earth in terms of delta-V. Delivery times are a bit long, but that only matters if your supply chain has been disrupted.