Asteroid Mining Made Legal, US Citizens May Own Celestial Bodies

Megalith

Megalith

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The president has signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act so you may now mine asteroids. But why stop there? Let’s get the legislation going on space advertising, interstellar hotels, Mass Effect relays, etc.

US citizens are now able to obtain their own asteroids and mine resources out of them, and will be able to own the materials they find there. Until now, space has largely been treated as publicly-owned, meaning that nobody could claim commercial ownership of anything that was out there.
 
and how long before this act becomes practical. and what about spacial squatting.
 
also, what about other countries. A US company registers an asteroid as theirs, but the Russians get their first.
Asteroid owner: Hey! I claimed that rock. Its mine!
Russians: We got there first and we do not recognize your county's act.

Could this lead to a war?
 
How about a poll for this topic?

Who should get asteroid property rights?
  • Nobody
  • Everybody, collectively
  • Whoever gets there first
  • Companies who claim them
  • Governments who claim them
  • Whoever is willing to live on them
  • Whoever owns the space territory they are in
  • The robots who enslave us
 
NeghVar said:
also, what about other countries. A US company registers an asteroid as theirs, but the Russians get their first.
Asteroid owner: Hey! I claimed that rock. Its mine!
Russians: We got there first and we do not recognize your county's act.

Could this lead to a war?
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As far as I'm concerned, you get the first, it's yours.
 
Are we planning on harvesting them in space or bringing them to earth? If it's the latter, please watch the atmosphere entry speeds.
 
It is actually an interesting topic, and one that will EVENTUALLY become relevant. As it is right now, no one can enforce ownership laws in space through terrestrial court systems. No nations are allowed to have a sovereign stake in celestial bodies, thus no nation can set laws for a celestial body.

This exact same scenario has played out many many times in mankinds history. Many people don't see it as being the same, but it is. In the beginning there will be "colonies" that are funded by and represent countries or entities here on Earth. That will work fine and dandy for a while. But eventually when enough natives are on the celestial body they will feel like every single human culture has ever felt and decide to direct their own fate.
 
NeghVar said:
How about a poll for this topic?

Who should get asteroid property rights?
  • Nobody
  • Everybody, collectively
  • Whoever gets there first
  • Companies who claim them
  • Governments who claim them
  • Whoever is willing to live on them
  • Whoever owns the space territory they are in
  • The robots who enslave us
Click to expand...
Whoever gets their first AND can mine the material.

No planting a flag from afar and saying "mine" (no pun), no planting a flag up close and saying "mine... when we get the technology to do so". Also since there's no law in space, they should also be responsible for defense of their claim.
 
Lith1um said:
As far as I'm concerned, you get the first, it's yours.
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NoNRG said:
I don't understand how anyone could argue any other way of handling this.
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Because scammers have been "selling" land on celestial bodies for decades....with no real legal force until now. Odds are a few hundred or thousand people already own every single square meter of the moon you care to name, for example.
 
You guys have it all wrong. Noone remembers Dune? The rules should be as follows
- you have to latch onto one in space-walk mode using mountain climbing gear
- you then have to tackle the beast. You need a jetpack and/or a healthy amount of beans to fuel your internal 'booster' engine. Use your gases sparingly for cleverly planned course-altering 'burns'
- using spice is allowed :D
- if you manage to park the critter in a near-earth orbit and thus spark a rebellion - the celestial body is truly yours, Muad'Dib.
 
Skripka said:
Because scammers have been "selling" land on celestial bodies for decades....with no real legal force until now. Odds are a few hundred or thousand people already own every single square meter of the moon you care to name, for example.
Click to expand...

You mean it wasn't smart of me to have cashed out my $500,000 retirement fund and purchased a plots on the moon to retire to? And here I thought I was getting a great deal.... Fuck
 
Skripka said:
Because scammers have been "selling" land on celestial bodies for decades....
Click to expand...

I do believe that was a Magic School Bus episode.. Selling stars.. :D

In any case, I say CLAIM JUMPERS!!!

Not really a big deal since 99.9% of us can't go and dig asteroids, but maybe one day the History Channel will have a new show.
 
Exavior said:
You mean it wasn't smart of me to have cashed out my $500,000 retirement fund and purchased a plots on the moon to retire to? And here I thought I was getting a great deal.... Fuck
Click to expand...

People who are romantic stickers go to official claiming and buy their names on celestial bodies every day of every year for $20usd. Of course the scammers have zero authority with the IAU... And often times the bodies they are claiming to sell names for are dust specks on their star chart photocopy.


Sure the USA can pass this law... Gives then no more legitimacy than Kim Jong UnUn claiming to be a god.
 
NeghVar said:
also, what about other countries. A US company registers an asteroid as theirs, but the Russians get their first.
Asteroid owner: Hey! I claimed that rock. Its mine!
Russians: We got there first and we do not recognize your county's act.

Could this lead to a war?
Click to expand...

Exactly, nobody can claim ownership to something that's not been yet conquered.
 
Skripka said:
People who are romantic stickers go to official claiming and buy their names on celestial bodies every day of every year for $20usd. Of course the scammers have zero authority with the IAU... And often times the bodies they are claiming to sell names for are dust specks on their star chart photocopy.


Sure the USA can pass this law... Gives then no more legitimacy than Kim Jong UnUn claiming to be a god.
Click to expand...

How dare you mock the almighty Kim Jong Un!
 
What if... they're already claimed.... It's not like we can even see the sun.... Think about it - one never knows whether the sun still exists.... takes 8 minutes to find out.....
 
NeghVar said:
Who will be the first to claim, or try to claim, Ceres?
Click to expand...

Ceres is a dwarf planet, not an asteroid. Although I think this whole thing sounds like a late April fools joke as what gives us the right to own anything in space. Strange coming after Thanksgiving where Native Americans were robbed of their land we now can claim asteroids. Granted asteroids are very likely uninhabitable and not owned by anyone already. The one thing I think is positive about all this is people will be looking to actually do this and doing so will likely help advance technology quicker.
 
First to plant flag gets dibs on non-planetary bodies. No dibs possible on planetary bodies. That seems fair to me.
 
NeghVar said:
and how long before this act becomes practical. and what about spacial squatting.
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Long time, but now that companies have an official 'OK' to do so some rich people will start to seriously play around with the idea. Should definetly speed things up since there is possible profit to be had. Earth is slowly running dry but there is no shortage of minerals and metals in asteroids. Eventually it will even become a necessity.
 
I'm working on my grand plan to get to Mars first with my army (first Homos there), claim it to be my realm, then blow up anything or anyone coming into my space safe space. Just have to get rid of those pesky damn indigenous martians there.

mars_rover_photo1.jpg




After that we can catch the Asteroids coming by before they get to Earth and harvest those resources. Maybe even alter the trajectory of one of them and give Earth a nice surprise. ;)
 
4saken said:
Perfectly reasonable imo.
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Perfectly reasonable in the "race to claim barren dead rock of no further value and die a horrible slow death due to no support backline available to support life on lifeless dead rocks" sense of "perfectly reasonable".
 
There should be no ownership unless a person or entity was able to alter its location in space. So essentially unless you were able to drag it somewhere.

Otherwise it should be fair game for anyone to simply get there and setup a mining station
 
NeghVar said:
How about a poll for this topic?

Who should get asteroid property rights?
  • Nobody
  • Everybody, collectively
  • Whoever gets there first
  • Companies who claim them
  • Governments who claim them
  • Whoever is willing to live on them
  • Whoever owns the space territory they are in
  • The robots who enslave us
Click to expand...

Settle it like everything else is on earth. Whoever has the most guns and ammo makes the rules.
 
Commander FAT said:
Settle it like everything else is on earth. Whoever has the most guns and ammo makes the rules.
Click to expand...

Because the Bigger Army Diplomacy way worked so immensely well for the past few millennia of human history and gave us such long term desirable results...
 
After reading your responses and thinking about the issue I'm leaning towards something entirely different. I think we'd be the biggest assholes in this galaxy if we began another war for territory that we can hardly reach. We're done here. Time to grow up and share nicely. If you manage to plant your gear in a given spot, noone should force you away. If you leave a spot unguarded - it returns to 'public domain' and your asteroid-neighbour can simply place his gear where yours was and you should not complain.
We've lost too much fighting over strips of land. And there's plenty of celestial bodies for everyone.
Also, we are not certain as to what we're exactly claiming! what if someone picks a random object that turns out to be in the 'goldielocks' zone? I.e. perfect for humans to colonize? Then what? Everyone GTFO my planet, even though there's no Earth because it was finally pinballed away from Sol by a planetoid?
 
Come to think of it, it's literally cocaine-talk. It's something a true egomaniac would say. It's a laughable attempt at a power-move.
Claiming celestial bodies? Okay. I claim the Earth and its' star Sol. Settled. DIBS.
 
Does the president know there are planets formed almost entirely from carbon compressed into diamond? Remember that ship with the tea? What risks would you need to face returning to Earth with more diamond that has been dug up? The people who picked it as their 'standard commodity' will be quite pissed. They can 'accidentally' bump your spaceship as you park in Earth's Orbit for re-entry.
 
michalrz said:
Come to think of it, it's literally cocaine-talk. It's something a true egomaniac would say. It's a laughable attempt at a power-move.
Claiming celestial bodies? Okay. I claim the Earth and its' star Sol. Settled. DIBS.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that much. Read the USA law entitled the Guano Islands Act of 1856.

It begins like this:

Guano Islands Act said:
Whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of guano on any island, rock, or key, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other Government, and not occupied by the citizens of any other Government, and takes peaceable possession thereof, and occupies the same, such island, rock, or key may, at the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to the United States.
— first section of Guano Islands Act
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano_Islands_Act

THEN you'll see "literally cocaine talk"...The US Government passed a law where quite literally if a US Citizen discovered bird poop on a landmass unclaimed by any other sovereign government, then that land belonged to the USA.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news.../08/by-kevin-underhill-the-guano-islands-act/

The USA still holds a collection of Guano Islands in its territory. Most are uninhabited tropical islands with no local citizens or government. Some however are strangely incorporated nonetheless and are legally bound by the US Constitution unlike say American Samoa who's 50,000 residents are all legally considered foreigners even though they live and are born on US territory, thus if an illegal immgrant gives birth on say Palmyra Atoll, the child is a US Citizen.
 
Skripka said:
THEN you'll see "literally cocaine talk"...The US Government passed a law where quite literally if a US Citizen discovered bird poop on a landmass unclaimed by any other sovereign government, then that land belonged to the USA.
Click to expand...

I shed tears of joy. Thank you.

Do bats carry passports or other forms of ID?

Last I heard bats speak in radar and not English. And I personally know a family of bats living in the nearby Boyen fortress in one of the bunkers. They're so chill they didn't mind me walking around them. Not really a territorial critter.

Do very small oxygen tanks exist? and little breathing masks?

I'm pretty sure I can get it to poop from here by startling it with a gas based laser or microwaves but I'm hesitant to attempt to propel it to escape velocity.
 
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