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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."
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."
That acronym is so massive we'll need Roland Emmerich to make a movie about it hitting the Senate floor.
How can any nation grant right over something outside its sovereignty?
i was afraid that privateers were running out of things to rape here on earth
The really surprising part is he actually got all the apostrophes right. Screwed up basic grammer, but did the fiddly bit fine.
In event of dispute, deliver minerals to other claimant. Without controlled deceleration.
Asteroid mining is the only way we're going to build large structures in space anytime "soon". There's plenty of asteroids, this issue can be revisited later.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If anything deserves a spacenuttery tag, this does!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
FIrstly, an advance "Haha, very funny!" to all of you out there with celestial body related sex/porn jokes you feel compelled to share with the rest of us. Now back to topic, when you travel to a celestial body and detach a piece of it does that piece cease to be a celestial body and become a .... uuuuh... celestial fragment or something? The Outer Space treaty must define a minimum size for a 'celestial body' because otherwise even grains of cosmic dust are 'celestial bodies'. At least that is the only way, that my non legal mind can conceive of, that this law gets around the outer space treaty.
Any company rich enough to get there can probably afford to hire people to defend its claim. Within a few years, they'll probably be rich enough to outright buy a company like Blackwater to serve as a small army to defend their claim if need be. That's the real danger here.
This law merely codifies what has already developed as the consensus among significant space-faring nations.
Since the world already accepts the premise that objects originating in outer space and brought to earth belong to those who retrieved them them (currently only Gov't agencies, but foreseeably private actors as well), and Article IX of the OST establishes a right to non-interference with outer space activities (outside of explicitly banned activities such as militarization, etc.), the lack of sovereignty or property rights over celestial bodies already presents no legal bar to their mineral exploitation.
Of course, the flip side of this is that someone else could completely legally set up a mining operation on the other side of the asteroid, and provided they are not interfering with your own operations, there is really nothing you could do to enforce a "claim" in the sense that we do here on earth.
As I read it, this introduced bill does nothing to change existing rights and duties under the current legal framework, but I suppose it does provide some assurance to prospective miners that, in the U.S. legal system at least, there will be no drastic changes to the current understanding.
IANAL (yet) but have interned at NASA.
So, if you as a country don't have the right to claim sovereignty over these celestial bodies ... then how on Earth (or space) do you have the authority to grant mineral rights? They're not your rights to give are they?
This is using authority you don't have to grant mineral rights to corporations. Can the US grant mineral rights to nations they don't control too? Because that's awfully special.
This just sounds like the typical ignore the intent of the treaty and make sure corporations have more avenues to make money without restriction.
Always nice when lawmakers pass laws over stuff they really have no jurisdiction.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The J. Paul Getty Maxim, oft repeated in the Oil Patch where I live, is "The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights".
It appears this concept applies to other celestial bodies as well.
Neither the US Congress, nor the United Nations, have any jurisdiction over anything outside LEO (Low Earth Orbit)
Seems to me they would have to pay import tarrifs to bring the resources back planetside....
Free Pie! The Pie is Also Evil!
"time for...Capitalist...Piiiiiigs...iiiin...spaaaaaaace!"
Just sayin'.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Words fail me. Almost. I realize that Congress needs to do appear to be doing something, while avoiding all possible controversy, but this seems like a press release that should never have gone out. Perhaps if they concerned themselves less with asteroid mining and more with the immigration issue, pollution, healthcare, and any number of more important issues, Americans might have a smidgin more respect for their elected officials. This seems like an issue that could wait...or maybe they could let the interns handle it.
Such a bill belongs in Russia, China or some other place that hasn't given up on space.
If they count as a foreign nation. Since "no one country" owns space according so some treaty or another(okay, I admit, my memory is fuzzy on this), they might not.
But they will pay taxes on the income/profits. And there's no economic system that doesn't value the availability of new raw materials as a primary interest.
I for one would like to be the first of these space mercenaries!
Even now I am thinking up cool sounding names to call ourselves... :)
This has been already a practice. When Apollo 11 come back with moon rocks no reasonable party questioned US rights to own those minerals. I believe Russian Luna robotic lander also returned some rocks from the moon and identically no reasonable party on Earth questioned Russian right to own those rocks. Now with private industries trying to invest into space exploration the practice is simply approaching a point when some legal framework must be developed. First step will be probably in the countries legal systems. Eventually it will evolve into the international law.
1) First, the silliness with bill names really needs to stop; one imagines a giglling kindergartner sitting "playing" Congressman typing out stupid acronyms while lobbyists sit in the background actually crafting the legislative language.
2) Then again, there are so many vagaries in the language of this bill, it's almost comical that it would be presented as legislation.
First, the bill keeps referring to "asteroids in outer space" - WTF is "outer space" precisely? Anything ex-atmospheric? Above the Karman Line? Anything in orbit? Anything outside lunar orbit?
Second, I believe even astronomers are having Platonic debates over the precise meanings of such terms as 'asteroid', 'planetoid', and 'moon'. Heck, in wiki's intro to "asteroid", the bulk of the opening paragraph sort of dissolves asymptotically trying to grab specifics. This document constantly references asteroids without bothering even to define what they're talking about. It might include Ceres or Vesta, but could it include the Moon? How about Phobos? Pluto?
Of course, most people have comfortable working definitions of the above, insofar as they care. But when the first rover starts drilling into the Moon, or Mars, or heck, taps into an agglomeration of someone else's space junk asserting it's "space debris that's formed an asteroid" these sorts of vagaries cause massive legal issues.
More evidence - as if the US public needed it - that our congressvermin are just idiots.
-Styopa
where they won't have to pay any taxes?
As well they shouldn't. No emerging technology should. Once it replaces all earth based mining and the industry is worth billions, you can rest assured that they'll get taxed up to wazoo.
Possession is 90% of the law, defense is the other 10%. If you can get it and defend it, it's yours. It's the same principle on which ownership of every country on Earth is based.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Especially as I was using a spellchecker. Must have overlooked the squiggly red line as I was more focused on making sure I got 'apostrophes' right.
It will just protect the 'interests' of an American corporation. See the US 'interventions', the US has never invaded anyone; in Panama, Columbia, Honduras, Cuba, Honduras again, Panama again, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. And that ignores invading Mexico in the 1840's to support Texans' 'property rights', aka slavery, and on others. Oh, and that list is just up to about 1915.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
"Can't?" Ok, I'll bite: what happens when you try? (Did you get an error message? What did it say?)
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
...but it should be pointed out: Congress' jurisdiction does not extend out to the asteroids, regardless of what they legislate...
Sure there is. Radar-guided missiles. Etc.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Neither the US Congress, nor the United Nations, have any jurisdiction over anything outside LEO (Low Earth Orbit)
You have de-facto jurisdiction wherever you have the power to assert it.
The American Revolution was about 150 years in the making --- population in 1776, around two million, any disruption in foreign trade wounding, but not fatal. Coastal cities vulnerable, but any penetration into the interior likely to end in disaster. (Saratoga)
The out-world colony for the foreseeable future will be and must be self-sustaining in the sense that it is in no immediate danger of running out of food or air. But it will be small and fragile --- in no position to cut its ties with the earth.
Uh, yes. Wasn't that the entire point of the treaty? The US government just signed it to appease the Commies in the Apollo era, didn't they?
"There is no enforcement mechanism in the event of a dispute with another country, however.""
A strong navy? Hey, it worked fine for the XYZ Affair .. and the Barbary Pirates too.
Seems to me they would have to pay import tarrifs to bring the resources back planetside....
.Letting someone have the high ground with big rocks at their disposal could have some interesting dynamics.
They impose a 50% tariff, so you drop it on their head.
"We collected 32 tons of almost pure iron today, your percentage will be arriving in 3, 2, 1..."
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
That's some forethought....they managed to get treaties signed, what, 30 years ago, that no countries can own things in outer space. So that leaves....corporations!
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
"Deals of this size are done all the time, and think what having access to and rights over a billion kilos of platinum would do for your corporate portfolio."
yes, I think this phrase is worth repeating.
mfwright@batnet.com
That would be something if they had the ability to control the path of these asteroids. Something tells me that the energy costs of directing one of them at a target on earth would be ridiculous. Also, unless said company wants to then operate solely in space, there would be retaliations against any Earth based resources they possess.
If someone can set up a viable asteroid mining company in near future, I honestly don't care if they are forced to pay taxes. The benefits to be had long-term from development of the associated tech are much more important.
So they better contribute enough campaign contributions to remain classified as "emerging"...
How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean.
it's not like the united states has anything to say about astroids, space is not theirs...
We're at that place the europeans were when they had a good idea of the scale the Americas but they didn't actually know what was in them... and there were like four countries that could even go to them.
So they drew up maps and just said "well this is all spain's, this is all protugal's, this is holland, etc"...
Never mind that the countries in question might only have literally ten people over there at that moment... which is effectively no one.
What worries me is that they're going to sit down here on earth and say "that asteroid belongs to X" "That asteroid belongs to Y" "that asteroid belongs to M"... and none of those people will actually go there. They'll just sit on earth like property trolls waiting for someone to actually go... and when they do, they'll claim ownership of whatever profits are made.
I'm not reading this thing because its too pie in the sky at this point. But frankly, I'm not terribly comfortable letting the government determine property rights in space until we have multiple companies exploiting asteroids at the same time. Until that happens its the deep frontier and the law of the gun might be preferable.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Not only will the US agree to defend your mineral extraction with a publicly funded military (by recognizing your extraction rights), they will disclaim any right to tax you on your gains (by not trying to claim sovereignty).
Privatize the profits, nationalize the risks!
If you had property in Hawaii a kilometre from shore and it was devastated by such a tsunami, you probably wouldn't call it hyperbole.
of this "Manifest Destiny" shite already. How about making the world that we are spoiling a better place to live?
Well, for the whole space mining thing to work you have to be able to drop a payload accurately. Most of the stuff that we could refine in space and land softly would have to be a high value/kilo ratio items... everything else has to be splashdown city. If we can do it with an Apollo Capsule we should be able to do it with a chunk of iron we processed after catching and mining it's momma. And if we can find a place to drop it safely (not counting birds, sea life and all the other stuff we ignore to make a buck) then someone could also drop it unsafely... on purpose.
Space Police is going to be a growth industry. And it will try to stay on top of things so that people don't get outside the system, until they actually leave the solar system. In all cases, people are people, and they will take their bullshit "I have a right to tell you all what to do because of {someCrap}" story across the universe if they can.
If there is extraterrestrial intelligent life watching us now, they are gonna shoot us in the head the minute we leave our solar system.
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
...developing backronyms for governmental agencies.
~Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
Yep. No matter how bad we are and how enslave our people the other side will always find a way to be worse. Don't much fancy China's ideas of human rights, or of health and safety, or 'freedom of speech'. Space dominated by the Russians or the Arab kingdoms could be even worse.
BTW - this kind of large scale asteroid mining or any large scale stuff in space is basically all impossible without nuclear rockets.
- Settling a colony anywhere out in space will require sovereignty, + any kind of confrontation out there will require weapons, so the first thing people will need to do is to get rid of some of those international treaties. Getting those self-serving UN bureaucrats to write laws about space has created a load of stupid unworkable laws unfit for any purpose except blocking all progress. A bit like their environmental work, or tackling world poverty, or justice, morality, actually almost everything they do. (Like the UK government most of the time they would do a better job if all just killed and stuffed and mounted in their seats. :D )
Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
Just because space isn't owned by someone doesn't mean it's not foreign.
The astronauts who went to the moon had to go through customs after they were picked up from the ocean.
Learn something new.