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Bill Confirming Property Rights For Asteroid Miners Passes the Senate (examiner.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the dibs-on-ceres dept.

MarkWhittington writes: The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee announced the passage of a bill called H.R.2262 — SPACE Act of 2015, which is designed to facilitate commercial space. The bill has a number of provisions for that purpose, including extending the "learning period" during which the government would be restricted from imposing regulations on the commercial launch industry to September 2023. The most interesting and potentially far-reaching provision concerned property rights for companies proposing to mine asteroids for their resources. In essence, the bill confirms that private companies own what they mine. The bill is a compromise between previous Senate and House versions.

3 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. The first word spoken on Mars ... by scunc · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Dibs."

    1. Re:The first word spoken on Mars ... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Funny

      An old joke from comedian Robert Klein...

      Neil Armstrong missed a great commercial opportunity when he placed his foot on the moon. With all of Planet Earth listening, he should have said 'Coca-Cola.'

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  2. Re:I have a new law too by Pseudonymous+Powers · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's about who the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow belongs to. That's about as realistic as asteroid mining. Leprechauns, space mining, same thing. You can talk all you want, fantasize all you want, it will never happen. Ever.

    Bah! You're just as bad as the rest of the space nutters on Slashdot. How many times do I have to tell you space nutters? Space doesn't exist! It's just a sheet of canvas that God put up above the Earth to keep us from seeing what else is on his desk.

    Space nutters!