No, we don’t have to accept it to mine the moon.
The author ignores the other lunar-related entrepreneurial activities, focusing exclusively on the Google Lunar Prize. The people closest to getting to the moon in any serious way are private actors, not any government, because it’s only going to happen with a dramatic reduction in cost of access. Certainly China’s not doing anything significant.
“Certainly China’s not doing anything significant.”
I’m curious – what facts ( or lack of facts ) are supporting this assertion ? From what i know, Chinese companies involved in their space industry are not publicizing their cost structures widely, and they also like to keep pretty tight wraps on any future technology development projects. CNSA officials have mentioned reusable space launch vehicles, recently, however.
What they’re doing openly isn’t significant. Of course I can’t know what they’re doing secretly.
Actually based on ongoing Chang’e-3 coverage and user comments from many places, they have a lot of information in the open available for anyone to read ( research materials, roadmaps, interviews with key personnel blah blah ) – except that it’s all in Mandarin.
So they aren’t necessarily trying to bee secretive, they just don’t bother to translate everything they say to English, just as we don’t translate anything to Mandarin.
No, no, no
The firm of Harriman & Strong should indeed be granted sole rights to lunar exploration.
There are absolutely no diamonds on the moon. None at all.
“We’re mining the moon. What ya gonna do? Send an Atlas V full of federal agents after us?”
Funny to think about, but in reality they’d just crush you in court and seize all your terrestrial assets.
Of course, if you make the right “contributions”, there’ll be no problems.
Trent,
Depends, if you are in a nation under the “Moon Treaty” then you would be out of luck. But in the U.S. if you are allowed to launch (get a launch license) then you shouldn’t have any issues.
Laws don’t mean much these days.
What we need is an accepted legal framework for claiming extra-terrestrial real-estate. Ideally something that works with the American west model of claim by occupation and development. One detail that could be useful is making a claim of limited duration before launch. Having 2 parties launching to claim the same asteroid could get ugly.