General / Off-Topic [News] US Senate votes to legalise space mining

Red Dirt Nurse

Red Dirt Nurse
Read the article here.

In brief:

After much delay, an important space bill has finally passed in the Senate.

The Space Act of 2015 would do a lot of things to encourage the private space industry--including extending the "learning period" wherein fledgling spaceflight companies can operate without too much government oversight. It would also give companies the rights to the resources they might one day extract from asteroids, such as platinum and water (which, believe it or not, is a valuable resource in space).

The bill has just passed in the Senate with unanimous approval and a few amendments. Now it will be sent back to the House of Representatives, which is expected to approve the changes, and then on to President Obama.

<snip>​

An earlier version passed in the House in May. Since then, the Senate amended it with a few interesting changes. For one, by adding the word "abiotic" to the definition of "space resources," they specify that living things are not considered a resource.

The term 'space resource' means an abiotic resource in situ in outer space.​

In other words, companies can't own any potential aliens they might find out there.

Secondly, the Senate made sure to cover its bases when it comes to the Outer Space Treaty, to hopefully avoid angering other countries.

It is the sense of Congress that by the enactment of this Act, the United States does not thereby assert sovereignty or sovereign or exclusive rights or jurisdiction over, or the ownership of, any celestial body.​

However, this points to one of the problems with the bill, according to Michael Listner, lawyer and founder of the consulting firm Space Law and Policy Solutions. Because the U.S. can't own property in space, it can't really dole out rights to pieces of that property. "It would be like you asking me for a piece of pie, and me saying, go over to my neighbor's house and take a piece of their pie, and then come back and thank me for it," says Listner. He thinks there should have been more international discussions about space mining before a U.S. law was proposed.


Source: Australian Popular Science
Click to expand...

I guess, my question is: Since when was the United States of America the authority or arbiter on off-world commodities? Isn't this a matter that might concern every government or citizen of the Earth?

Just curious to hear what people think.
 

Leper Messiah

Leper Messiah
Interesting....basically is it going to be: "I found this, no one else has a claim to it, so it's mine"? Not sure I like "private" space race. Will we see a Weyland Yutani?!!!
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
I think the bill is just saying it's now legal for US companies to exploit space. They are obviously not the arbiters of space, but business dealings in new frontiers tend to get beaten into shape when multiple countries start taking an interest and it then gets referred to something like the UN. TBH, I don't think anyone on Earth can claim space, it's there for whomever can take it. It's not like Antarctica, since that actually is on Earth and "belongs" to all earthlings.
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
This would seem to be one of those attempts at posterity.

It's kinda sad really. The US has so many problems which have yet to be addressed, yet one of their principal houses seems to feel this is an important issue to address.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Patrick_68000 said:
The Thargoids and other species will not contradict you
Click to expand...

I welcome our new Alien overlords. :)

Surfinjo said:
It's kinda sad really. The US has so many problems which have yet to be addressed, yet one of their principal houses seems to feel this is an important issue to address.
Click to expand...

Unsurprising though. The US government works for the rich, so it's no surprise that it's finding new ways for the rich to get richer.
 

Mephane

Mephane
Surfinjo said:
This would seem to be one of those attempts at posterity.

It's kinda sad really. The US has so many problems which have yet to be addressed, yet one of their principal houses seems to feel this is an important issue to address.
Click to expand...

Well it kind of is, since there are companies right now who aim to ultimately capture and mine asteroids in our lifetime, and for our future in space, resource utilization in situ will be of central importance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom