🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <d81e59c9.0411190222.7b4da913@posting.google.com>,
Alex Terrell <alexterrell@yahoo.com> wrote:
>If I want to mine a 100m diameter NEO. Perhaps even I spend a billion
>dollars to bring it in to Earth Orbit. I start selling oxygen, water
>and platinum.
>Can some one else land on the other side and start doing the same? 

Perhaps.  Whether you can establish any sort of property rights to it is
really, really unclear. 

>Can I claim the object? The Outer Space Treaty only says states can't
>claim an object.

International law is all about states; individuals and companies barely
exist as legal entities in its peculiar world, and they are always
servants of some state.  There is always some state that has authority
over you and is charged with supervising your activities.  Similarly, it
is states that have (or don't have) property rights; if a state chooses to
delegate the responsibility for managing some of its property to you,
perhaps even giving you a piece of paper saying that you "own" it, that is
the state's internal business.  But it can't do that unless it has claim
to the property in the first place. 

Well, okay, that's oversimplified, but not by very much.  The golden age
of international law was also the glory days of socialism, and it shows.

>Who is going to ensure that I don't accidently put
>the object on an Earth collision orbit?

The state under whose authority you are operating is supposed to supervise
your activities, and is ultimately responsible for the consequences.  (In
some cases, deciding *which* state that is might be complicated, but there
theoretically always is one.)

If you're a US citizen, part of the answer is easy:  the US government
claims authority over what you do, no matter where you are.  (If some
other government also claims such authority, you have to keep both of them
happy.  If their requirements conflict, that's *your* problem.)

>I think this is an area that needs to be cleared up well before mining
>activities start on any other planet / object. Or can we rely on an
>extension of Anglo-Saxon common law?

No, if only because not all nations potentially involved in such
activities are Anglo-Saxon. :-)

In the end, it's probably going to end up being sorted out as the need
arises.  That is, when disputes arise about space mining activities.  That
is, *after* mining activities start.  Yes, it would be good to clear it up
beforehand, if only because it would reduce investors' perception of risk
in such ventures, but I'd say that's not likely to happen. 
-- 
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer
                                -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net