Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Mining the Solar System

There's been lots of talk here lately over off-world property rights (oh! the joy at writing such a thing. surely we live in the Future) since Planetary Resources' announcement that they will attempt to prospect and mine a near-Earth asteroid. Being the money-grubbing Objectivist who believes that God designed creation for His glory and the benefit of Man, I think that our terrestrial governments ought to defend the claims of private parties operating in space. Yet there are facets of international law, such as the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which seem to deny private property claims under the idea that the cosmos are the "heritage of mankind".

So, what say you? Should we allow or encourage private claims in space? What kind of unintended consequences could flow from one action or another?

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