President Barack Obama managed to sign into law a fairly big step forward in terms of space mining while most folks were more concerned with turkey and all the fixings last week. Planetary Resources is another such example of a space startup focused on space resource mining.
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Other attorneys disagree, by stating that asteroids don’t qualify as “celestial bodies”, and that mining the resources does not mean they’re staking claim or ownership.
Futurists cheered after the U.S. Congress passed the Space Act because they believe that asteroid mining is a giant leap towards our civilization reaching the “Type I” civilization level – a planetary “type” civilization that can harness the power of the planet and surrounding planets and objects (Solar System objects).
While speaking to TechNewsWorld, he mentioned, “The caution is, because it’s worldwide space, the moon and other celestial bodies don’t belong to anyone”.
The problem, however, as discussed by Gbenga Oduntan, a senior lecturer in International Commercial Law from the University of Kent, for The Conversation, is that “the private sector is now allowed to make space innovations without regulatory oversight during an eight year period”. On the other hand, startup space miners can accept gold or platinum orders on Earth and hunt rocks that contain such resources.
The US House Committee on Science, Space and Technology denies there is anything in the act which violates the US’s worldwide obligations.
IAA, an independent nongovernmental organization recognized by the United Nations, fosters the development of astronautics for peaceful purposes, recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves in areas related to astronautics and provides a program through which the membership can contribute to worldwide endeavors and cooperation in the advancement of aerospace activities.
But the new law is careful to only give private ownership to anything extracted from a celestial object, not to the object itself. We can assume that the list of states that have access to outer space – now a dozen or so – will grow. This may also ruin our chances of finding alien life in other celestial bodies.
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Ultimately, the U.S. plans must be understood in the light of existing rules of space law. Mining water from asteroids, the Moon or Mars, for example, will help ensure that human exploration will expand beyond low Earth orbit. The treaty also states that outer space shall be the “province of all mankind … and that states shall avoid harmful contamination of space”. It extends the use of the International Space Station until 2024. Companies may also be allowed to extract certain resources, but the very first provision of the Outer Space Treaty (1967), to which the United States is a signatory, is that such exploration and use shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries. The Ancient Romans had this all correctly in their legal maxim: “What concerns all must be decided upon by all”.
