Congress Can't Make Asteroid Mining Legal (But It's Trying, Anyway)

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Congress Can't Make Asteroid Mining Legal (But It's Trying, Anyway)

Posted by Soulskill on Friday September 12, 2014 @10:07AM from the one-of-the-few-things-congress-actively-tries-to-do-these-days dept.

Jason Koebler writes: Earlier this week, the House Science Committee examined the American Space Technology for Exploring Resource Opportunities in Deep Space (ASTEROIDS) Act, a bill that would ensure that "any resources obtained in outer space from an asteroid are the property of the entity that obtained such resources."

The problem is, that idea doesn't really mesh at all with the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, a document that suggests space is a shared resource: "Unlike some other global commons, no agreement has been reached at to whether title to extracted space resources passes to the extracting entity," Joanne Gabrynowicz, a space law expert at the University of Mississippi said (PDF). "There is no legal clarity regarding the ownership status of the extracted resources. It is foreseeable that the entity's actions will be challenged at law and in politics."

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Is it just me... by mythosaz · 2014-09-12 10:10 · Score: 4, Funny

Is it just me, or does the phrase "a space law expert at the University of Mississippi" cause you to giggle just a little bit?
1. Re:Is it just me... by marcello_dl · 2014-09-12 10:24 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Besides, that guy doesn't know ANYTHING.
  Mining asteroids!
  You see, when you hit an asteroid it fragments in many little ones that begin spreading around, so you have to hit all of them too and escape from them at the same time, and every now and then an alien ship comes around and start shooting creating even more chaos.
  LEAVE ASTEROIDS ALONE.
  
  --
  ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
As a private citizen by Spy+Handler · 2014-09-12 10:17 · Score: 2, Funny

I am not bound by treaty. I am bound only by the laws of my country.
If Congress says I can keep the gold I just mined off Ceres, it's mine. Would the Russian government come after me for their share? Good luck to them.
1. Re:As a private citizen by ultranova · 2014-09-12 19:02 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Besides I'm German, and if I nad the capacity to mine gold on an asteroid I certainly woukd not 'land' it in a nation but in international waters.
  
  I guess that's one way to make pirates leave cargo ships alone...
  
  --
  Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Re:Possession is nine-tenths of the law... by CreatureComfort · 2014-09-12 10:34 · Score: 4, Funny

To anyone who sues over this chuck of space rock I claim, fine, I'll send it right to you...

Problem solved...

--
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar