The Solar System belongs to all humanity

[gyro]

While looking into Dave's latest brain teaser [and the mention of the US flag on the Moon] I came across this interesting item, something I had never heard of :-

In 1967, The Outer Space Treaty [OST] was ratified by the UN, fundamentally recognizing that Space belongs to everyone. I quote "The OST explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource on the Moon or Planet since they are the common heritage of humanity"

Since then there have been several additions which iinclude all orbiting bodies and private companies/organisations.

I hope someone has told George jnr'

I wonder if the 'Clangers' are sleeping easy.

[Astro Dave]

Gyro, your observations, dissertations and interpretations are interesting. The next trillionaires not millionaires, are going to be made in space - in low earth orbit industries.

Already the mining of asteroids is being seriously considered and of course moon mining will be huge, especially for the extraction of oxygen, ore, and the elusive (read "expensive') helium-3

See this link for moonbase info;
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/moonbase_biz_021002.html

The outer space treaty/ies were/was only signed by a select few nations, not all, and in essence it wanted to prevent the singular or collective government ownership of celestial real estate.

I think this area is going to be a minefield of disaster in coming years as nations battle to claim the rights to planets/asteroids/moons etc. In the land of the dollar bill there are actually professional people now training to be, get this - 'Space Lawyers'!

[Tenacious Del]

If companies or countries can't put some kind of ownership onto an asteroid or part of a planet, the incentive to get there is less. Just like these days companies spend billions on research, because when they make that discovery they own the rights to it. Without that kind of priviledge, companies won't be so quick to race into space.