How To Avoid a Scramble For the Moon and Its Resources

MarkWhittington writes "With the Chang'e 3 and its rover Jade Rabbit safely ensconced on the lunar surface, the question arises: is it time to start dividing up the moon and its resources? It may well be an issue by the middle of the current century. With China expressing interest in exploiting lunar resources and a number of private companies, such Moon Express, working for the same goal, a mechanism for who gets what is something that needs looking into. Moon Daily quotes a Russian official as suggesting that it can all be done in a civilized manner, through international agreements. On the other hand, law professor and purveyor of Instapundit Glenn Reynolds suggests that China might spark a moon race by having a private company claim at least parts of the moon. 'International cooperation will certainly rule supreme while there are no economic interests, while it is not clear where commercial profits lie. Scientists can't help communicating with each other and sharing ideas.'"

Comments

Why bother?

[wcrowe]

I don't know why we Americans would even bother discussing the issue. We're never going to get back to the moon, manned or robotically. While China and India are sending spacecraft there, our government can't even build a working website, and our finest minds are squandered on ways to get people to click links. We'll be lucky if we can keep the bridges standing, the roads open, the water clean, and the electricity flowing by mid-century.