
Owning materials from an asteroid now legal in United States - 6502nerdface
http://marketbusinessnews.com/owning-an-asteroid-now-legal-in-united-states/113158
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dheera
How does the United States have the authority to set laws governing asteroids?
What if I am not in the US, not a US citizen, and launch a spacecraft from
somewhere other than the US and go ravage some asteroids for resources? Why is
this not an international treaty jointly made by at least the space-capable
nations?

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Jach
The US is only governing its own citizens and claiming the rule and
responsibility to enforce its decisions over them. It's the same as if they
were telling US citizens what they can own if they do activities in
international waters. Your what-if answer depends on your country.

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jacquesm
> The US is only governing its own citizens and claiming the rule and
> responsibility to enforce its decisions over them.

How I wish that were true.

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delinka
Was there already law someplace that addressed such things as _not_ eligible
for ownership? If not, why would this not fit under marine salvage laws?

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rtkwe
> 'Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject
> to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or
> occupation, or by any other means'.

Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty [0]

The whole treaty is pretty vague and mostly deals with access to objects and
national claims of ownership preventing access to objects. Article 9 might
apply here but it's pretty loosely worded too and basically says exploration
will be conducted "with due regard to the corresponding interests of all other
State Parties to the Treaty" and avoid harmful contamination.

Not sure if this qualifies as allowing national appropriation, all I've seen
is that this applies to the bits they pull out not giving ownership to the
body itself. There will probably be challenges once someone actually tries to
go out and actually mine one. Article 9 might make better fodder for that
though.

[0]
[http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/gares/ARES_21_2222E.pdf](http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/gares/ARES_21_2222E.pdf)

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gizmo686
The only groups I can imagine challenging the mining itself would be private
environmentalist groups (and even then, of the environmentalists who care at
all, this would still be a low priority), and they do not have standing to
challenge it.

In order for a state to care about challenging it, I suspect we would need to
states to want to mine at the same location, in large enough quantities that
they might get in each others way, or deplete the resource.

