Asteroid Mining Bill Introduced In Congress To Protect Private Property Rights

MarkWhittington writes: "Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) announced on Thursday that he was introducing a bill along with Rep, Derek Kilmer (D-WA) called the American Space Technology for Exploring Resource Opportunities in Deep Space (ASTEROIDS) Act of 2014 (PDF). The act is designed to protect the private property rights for entities mining asteroids and to otherwise encourage asteroid mining. The bill is in apparent reaction to efforts by companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries to locate and mine Earth approaching asteroids for their resources.

The crucial part of the short piece of legislation states that the resources mined from an asteroid would be the property of the entity undertaking the operation. This language gets around the provision of the Outer Space Treaty that says states are forbidden to establish national sovereignty over celestial bodies, which would be a prerequisite to the United States allowing a private entity to own an asteroid. It rather grants mineral rights to the asteroid, something the treaty does not mention. There is no enforcement mechanism in the event of a dispute with another country, however."

ASTEROIDS

[bistromath007]

That acronym is so massive we'll need Roland Emmerich to make a movie about it hitting the Senate floor.

thank goodness

[Cardoor]

i was afraid that privateers were running out of things to rape here on earth

Dispute procedure.

[SuricouRaven]

In event of dispute, deliver minerals to other claimant. Without controlled deceleration.

Re:Not exactly

[I'm New Around Here]

Missiles for a grammar mistake.

Damn, I'd hate to be in your classroom.