Moon Treaty. The international community has tried for quite the time to make up some rules about the collection and the use of resources in space and on the Moon. The U.S., together with all the spacefaring countries, has declined to approve the 1979 “Moon Treaty,” and the new Moon race has now spiced up since the White House has announced that they are open to a new international agreement.
The administration stated that the policy would go forward in order to encourage international support for the public and private recovery and the use of resources from space. This is just the first step, but it is also a signal that the U.S wants to move forward with a new system regarding the resources in space.
One of the most important questions is which laws apply (property laws and border agreements) when people leave the Earth. Many of the laws and the rules were written during a quite different space-age, and let’s not forget the Cold War either. Considering the times we’re living in, we definitely need new rules.
Right now, there is not much in the way of official legal status for the material gathered from the Moon, and bought to Earth, and shared with other countries. The question is: who will arbitrate the disagreements encountered along the way? Can we prevent the lunar surface from being disfigured?
Property rights in the space?
We also don’t have rules for filling the sky with communications satellites, but it needs to be done. Will there be like property rights on the Moon? Wouldn’t there be a lot of conflict surrounding this? How will they avert the conflicts? Will they be able to? Will they take into consideration these situations?
