Property Rights In Space? 269
ATKeiper writes "A number of companies have announced plans in the last couple of years to undertake private development of space. There are asteroid-mining proposals backed by Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, various moon-mining proposals, and, announced just this month, a proposed moon-tourism venture. But all of these — especially the efforts to mine resources in space — are hampered by the fact that existing treaties, like the Outer Space Treaty, seem to prohibit private ownership of space resources. A new essay in The New Atlantis revisits the debates about property rights in space and examines a proposal that could resolve the stickiest treaty problems and make it possible to stake claims in space."
Don't worry, there is plenty (Score:5, Funny)
Awesome ... (Score:4, Funny)
Bring on the space pirates.
But, more seriously, I think the problem was when that treaty was signed, it took the resources of a nation-state to get someone into space. And now increasingly, it's private corporations doing this.
At some point, someone will actually land something on an asteroid or something and say "we own this now", so at some point, this really is going to be needed.
This life-ending Asteroid has been brought to you by Coca Cola.
Re:Don't worry, there is plenty (Score:5, Funny)
Lagrange points?
I hear they got a lotta nice girls there. A HAR HAR HAR HAR.