Space ownership

[Asguard]

this came from a practical joke but i feel the topic is interesting

should companys\people be alowed to own planets

i think its wrong because if a BUISNESS gains a whole PLANET then human rights would be at serouse risk

no goverment would have duristiction over it so the only law would be theres and they just want money

potentully we could be looking at slave labor camps, smuggling, drug abodes (with no garentiee on WHATS in it)

 

[Weiser_Dub]

I don't think ownership of land is right. Why is one person to say the other can't enjoy a part of the Earth? Totally ludicrous if you ask me.

 

[spacemanspiff]

again i qoute fighclub..

"we deep space exploration kicks in it'll be the corporations that get there first. the microsoft galaxy, planet starbucks..."

you know it'll happen. anytime money can be made by buying something it will happen. i don't like it but i bet it would happen. you think if the US sends a man to mars that they will claim it? of course no one has claimed the moon, but it is not really valuable and no one can really get to it, so there's no need. but if there were something of value on the moon you bet people would lay claim to all or parts of it.

 

[Eli Z]

Maybe they wont "own" it in the sense that they will have the saying over who can get in/out and the rules on the planet, but what if companies/countries will have rights on the resources of those planets as long as they use them or are preparing to use them?

Say... Some company, if it proves it can do it, will be able to claim an asteroid and they will have to start mining it in a period of 5(insert any other number here) years to keep the rights on the asteroid.

This way, in the moment asteroid mining becomes profitable, we will have a competition of companies trying to mine them, which will be great for development of space technology.

In any case, the current situation when no one can claim space is counter productive. It gives countries no reason to explore and exploit space.

 

[Jerrek]

Once star travel becomes feasable, there will be imperialism, period. I do believe in the ownership of land, and I would support governments that legitimately claim territories in space. Legit here can mean many things, but if the U.S. decides to set up a military base on Io (a satellite of Jupiter), who is to say "you can't do that!"?

I also think it depends how much star travel become feasable. If you are limited by a cheap and easy way to reach the rest of the solar system but no star drive it will be quite different than if the entire galaxy is before us. I mean, someone can then run off on a random vector and quite possibly claim a planet to himself and no one would know about that. What would be wrong with that?

One thing that I can see people are going to have issues with, probably more so than just territorial rights on planets, is mining rights. The asteroid belt is rich in minerals.

Interesting times ahead.