Unlike the entire state of Florida, the moon is both a nice place to visit and somewhere I'd like to live. And with the impending onslaught of international moon missions, the question of who has the right to live on the moon is going to have to be answered. The Outer Space Treaty says that all celestial bodies belong to humanity as a whole, so different countries can't claim their own tracts in some kind of lunar land rush. However, that doesn't mean that some entities couldn't claim property rights--charging others to use areas of the moon they've already settled and cultivated. There are about ten billion acres of usable land on the moon, so there should be plenty to go around. Maybe this won't turn into a petty stingefest after all. But if history is any indicator, it won't be long before we're trading smallpox-infected blankets with unwitting moon men. More details here.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Who Owns the Moon?
Labels:
Science
Who Owns the Moon?_t~~_http://amateurscientistblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/who-owns-moon.html
Blog Archive
-
▼
2008
(518)
-
▼
September
(59)
- Sarah Palin: Idiot
- Hell No, We Won’t Coal
- First Private Rocket Reaches Orbit
- I Am a Course in Miracles
- Cannibal Holocaust
- Quaking at Home
- Just Scraping By
- Hoo-Ha!
- A Milky Proposition
- G-Ideas
- Stonehenge Snake Oil
- Sheldrake Stabber Still Sequestered
- Strokegasm
- Republican ‘Fraidy Cats
- Panic! at the Citgo
- Marriage: The Final Frontier
- Ant from Mars Not Really from Mars
- Nature’s Terrifying Truths: Penis Fish
- A New and Improved Wiping Experience
- Short and Long
- Haiku, Youku, We all Ku for The Sun-Ku
- LHC UFOs
- Planet Curious (Yellow Star)
- Thinking Cap
- ...In Bed
- Royal Society Education Director: Idiot
- Greek Hackers Attack the LHC
- UFOs A-Coming?
- LHC Suicide
- In Russia, "South Park" Could be Banned
- Scientology in Le Court
- Attenborough vs. Creationists
- The Blue Skin Blues
- Mark of the Beef
- Living in Space
- Get to Know a Hominid: Part 2 - Paranthropus boisei
- Earth Destroyers Targeted
- Stem Cell Shit Storm
- Haunted Spice Rack
- Girl-on-Girl-in-Hell
- Beetle Junk
- Space without U.S.
- Lying to Your Trainer for a Better Life
- Death by Cop
- Bible Trumping
- Happy Belated Birthday
- God. What a Dick.
- Looking for Sagan
- The Bear Necessities
- Bubble Ship
- Chinese Soot Invasion
- Fortune Tellers Finally Free
- Dr. Sex
- The Paracast
- Dragon*Con Remembered
- Who Owns the Moon?
- Death Diamonds
- Vladimir Putin: Man of Bronze
- Ye Incredibly Olde Beer
-
▼
September
(59)