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The Great Meteor Grab
RocketAcademy writes "New regulations by the Federal government define asteroidal material to be an antiquity, like arrowheads and pottery, rather than a mineral — and, therefore, not subject to U.S. mining law or eligible for mining claims. At the moment, these regulations only apply to asteroidal materials that have fallen to Earth as meteorites. However, they create a precedent that could adversely affect the plans of companies such as Planetary Resources, who intend to mine asteroids in space."
Talk about worrying about the wrong problems. Why worry about how this is regulated before anyone can even come close to doing it?
First come up with a way to mine an asteroid, then you can worry about the legal semantics.
The well-funded asteroid-miners will be able to buy the politicians and get the rules changed before they launch and call it a cost of doing business.
The not as well funded ones... well, it wouldn't be the first time lack of excess capital to pay lawyers or lobbyists stopped a project before it started.
Besides, if only the US has this law, then companies will just launch under other nations' flags and sell the minerals to countries that don't have a problem with mining asteroids.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The article makes a huge logical leap: that US laws governing items on federal lands somehow apply to items that are not on federal lands (for example, the asteroid belt). This is akin to saying that US antiquity laws would prevent a US citizen from prospecting for fossils in, say, Canada. What a load of baloney. The author is trying to conflate and confuse two issues (mining in space and prospecting on US federal lands) which are utterly unrelated.
Nebulo
I just built an autonomous spaceship and 3 asteroid mining robots. Wish they would give us a heads up every once in a while.
-badford
I doubt it's a problem. An Asteroid is not a Meteorite.
"A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface" - Wikipedia - Meteorite
So unless someone plans on mining an asteroid by slamming it into the planet, they probably don't have to deal with laws pertaining to meteorites. There is also the fact that US law does not extend to the Asteroid Belt.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
The attached articles are talking about regulations for metorites found on the surface of federal land. Last time I checked (1) asteroids aren't metorites until they fall out of the sky[1]; (2) asteroids in space aren't found on the surface of federal lands; and (3) the U.S. Gov't has no jurisdiction out where thar be asteroids.
Total fail.
1. "A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface." Wiki source.
No one is making any such claim of jurisdiction. You fell for a trollbait story submission. This was about meteorites on Earth not mining asteroids.
Only as far as it stands to reason that the US can claim jurisdiction in space.
This is totally off topic, but under the Outer Space Treaty, mining is not a prohibited activity, but if you read closer, you don't get to escape all jurisdiction by simply going into space. You are still under the jurisdiction of the place where you launched from.
Article VIII
A State Party to the Treaty on whose registry an object launched into outer space is carried shall retain jurisdiction and control over such object, and over any personnel thereof, while in outer space or on a celestial body.
The best way to make a successful business these days is to get stuck in and BE SUCCESSFUL long before the legislation catches up with you.
The recent Banking-and-Finance Charlie Foxtrot proves that if you make ENOUGH money The Government will drop their pants to support you no matter what you do (ie no matter how immoral and unethical your actions may have been).
If you WAIT for the legislation first, said laws will have been funded by lobbyists of EXISTING INTERESTS supporting their own outdated business models.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
But the US of A does not own space. So anything there is up for grabs. USA may have laws and restrictions on what happens to meteorites brought back to their country but there are other countries who would welcome the minerals.