Here on earth, we are divided up into countries which is basically us humans laying claim to certain parts of the world. However in space, who do the planets belong to? What if there was no life on that planet, does that mean we as humans could lay claim to somewhere like Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Saturn, and so on?
We suppose that’s an interesting question that can’t really be answered for now, but in the meantime over in the US, the Senate is voting on whether or not space mining should be made legal. Basically what this means that as far as the US in concerned, it is possible that in the future companies from the US could legally mine space.
As it stands, there is the Outer Space Treaty which basically states that no nation can own property in space. However according to the bill, “A United States citizen engaged in commercial recovery of an asteroid resource or a space resource under this chapter shall be entitled to any asteroid resource or space resource obtained, including to possess, own, transport, use, and sell the asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law, including the international obligations of the United States.”
That being said in a bid to prevent angering other countries, there is an additional portion in the bill that reads, “It is the sense of Congress that by the enactment of this Act, the United States does not thereby assert sovereignty or sovereign or exclusive rights or jurisdiction over, or the ownership of, any celestial body.”
We’re not sure how this will sit with other countries, but if anything we wouldn’t be surprised if this kicked off a race to begin “owning” as much resources from space as possible.