Slashdot Mirror
India Ends Russian Space Partnership and Will Land On the Moon Alone
An anonymous reader writes: The Russian space program has experienced numerous accidents and delays recently, leading Indian officials to call into question its long term viability. Now India has decided to pull out of a partnership with Russia for a mission to the moon. According to the Examiner: "Previously, India was scheduled to launch a Russian lander on one of its rockets and send it to the lunar South Pole. Now, according to a story in Russia and India Report, India will go it alone, building its own lander to touch down on the lunar surface within the next few years.
There is absolutely nothing in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 that prevents commercial exploitation, and it actively encourages scientific exploitation. What it prohibits is national appropriation, i.e. no country can claim claim territory.
What is unclear is who who has jurisdiction over conflicts between nationals of different signatories. (Nationals of the same signatory are under the jurisdiction of that signatory.) For example, if US Space Mining Co comes along a picks up the processed ore from EU Space Mining Co and runs off with it EUSMCo has no venue for redress of the theft.
Never mind that mining is illegal under existing space treaty.
The Outer Space Treaty bans claims of sovereignty, but does not ban individual property rights. You cannot own the moon, but if you dig up and process lunar regolith, the resulting product should be yours.
Iba-dah cultures like India are not important. Their backward beliefs and ideologies are threats to the civilized world. I don't care how 'offensive' this is, it's still the truth.
This is the same kind of thing that was said in the US. The space program had more "spin-off" benefits than I can list. Computers, solar cells, etc. were all advanced by contributions from space research. If it hadn't been for computers in particular, I don't know what kind of work I would have had. It probably wouldn't have been such a good ride for me, and I was never directly employed by NASA. Yes. There are still poor people in the USA... carrying pocket computers.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?