🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C0GxFn.9x.1@cs.cmu.edu> roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts) writes:

>-From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
>-Subject: Re: Question:How Long Until Privately Funded Space Colonization



>->In <3954@key.COM> rburns@key.COM (Randy Burns) writes:
>->>What are the current estimates of folks in this newsgroup of how long it 
>->>will be until the world starts to see privately funded space colonization?

>-Can one
>-reasonably expect people to do things when the government can step
>-in at any time and say no, or say that what you have done belongs
>-to it?  

>If it's the principle of eminent domain that you're worried about, then
>yes, that could theoretically happen. But the same applies to activities
>on the Earth. Does it make sense to refuse to buy a house or a car because
>in principle the government could take it away? In practice, most people
>don't have their houses or cars taken by the government - the political
>cost of doing so is high, serving to act at least as a partial check on
>the use of eminent domain. In fact, government seizure of a privately built
>lunar base could well be harder than (for instance) taking property on
>the Earth for a road or a landfill - not only is it much more "visible",
>but the US government hasn't claimed that the moon is part of its territory.

My concern has nothing to do with the principle of eminent domain.  It also
has nothing to do with claims about ownership of the moon.  

Consider the possible scenario:  An American organization raises enough
money to produce and operate a space station, acquires launching rights
in Tanzania, acquires the necessary equipment, and then existing law is
invoked to tell the organization that they cannot do it.  I believe that
this law could be invoked if Americans even participate in a foreign
organization.

Or the bureaucrats decide that the presence of a lunar colony would 
"not be in the national interest," and invokes RICO (it sure is that
broad) to seize at least any American assets of the organization.  
I doubt that the government of any industrial nation wants man in
space unless it is strictly under its control, or at least under the
control of those who would stifle mankind.

-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@snap.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)  
{purdue,pur-ee}!snap.stat!hrubin(UUCP)