Thread: Moon Laws
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Old October 9th 07, 12:14 AM posted to sci.space.policy,rec.arts.sf.science,sci.space.station
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Default Moon Laws

On Oct 7, 2:40 pm, "Logan Kearsley" wrote:
"Space Cadet" wrote in message

ps.com...

Hi All
Got this email from a friend of mine:


Hi all, I am working on a new lesson for my second graders focusing on
Moon Laws. If YOU were given the task of creating a constitution, laws,
bill of rights for people in a future lunar colony what would YOU
include? I'd love to have your input! Thanks,


My first thought is that doesn't the OST say or at least imply that
the country that launches an object/probe/spacecraft is responsible
for said object? And whatever rule of law applies to that country
would apply to said object?
Even if you would go with a privately funded moon colony. That
company would be based on some nation on Earth, and whatever laws
apply to that country would apply to the colony?


Yes, but... that doesn't mean that the people living in the colony have to
agree with the Earthlings who signed that treaty. They could just declare
themselves soveriegn and say "*we* never signed the OST, so bugger off".


Well wait a minute most of the people living there will have been born
on Earth,and be from one of the nations that signed the OST. So,its
not quite that easy. And their children, even if born on the moon,
will likely be claimed as citizens from the country their parents were
born in. Sort of like kids born at military bases in other nations.
Children from parents of two different nationalities, who lived on the
moon their whole life,and having offspring - their kids might be able
to make a claim like this - but you can bet the folks on Earth would
have a thing or two to say about it. Especially if they paid for the
infrastructure that kept them alive all those many decades.

Or,
if they don't form an independent nation, there's still nothing to stop the
originating nation from passing new space-specific laws different from those
that operate in their territory on Earth.


Sure, just like Argentina can go out and claim the Falkand Islands
from Britain. Britain wouldn't care about the 90 or so people living
there would they? haha.. NOT

What about an international colony, would it be the country that funds
most of the colony? Or do international laws/treaties apply hear?
What is the setup for ISS?


-l.
------------------------------------
My inbox is a sacred shrine, none shall enter that are not worthy.


The whole thing is set up to deflect any possibility of private
investment in space. This is something nations don't want to worry
about. They would be far happier if the solar system was just a topic
of research and not a new frontier for humanity - and the law reflects
that.

This approach sticks in the craw of all of those who want to leave the
Earth and try something different out in interplanetary space.

The simplest thing to do is figure out how to fund developments in
space propulsion technology that provide fundamental improvements in
cost benefit, and then figure out how to make a continuing profit in
space. Once that's done, then the profits can be used to fund
development. And once you have real development,then you can push for
changes in the current OST given the changing situation in space that
you've created. That's one approach.

Building Nova class resuable launch vehicles that cut the cost of
getting to space to about 3% today's cost will bring about the sort of
changes you seek. This would allow the following infrastructures to
be contemplated that could make a few bucks, that could be plowed back
into space development;

(1) many to many communication satellite network - global wireless
internet
(2) space hotel and space tourism
(3) lunar hotel and lunar tourism
(4) power satellites
(5) lunar bank

Iridium and Teledesic are both attempts at #1, they lacked the
requisite launch capacity at the price they needed to make it work.
But this is still a valid way to go. Space hotel and space tourismis
getting started in small ways now - given the limitations of our
launch infrastructure. Lunar hotel and lunar tourism need an
improvement along the lines i've described to be workable. Low mass
powersats that use solar pumped lasers, rather than microwaves might
be possible with the same launchers that make lunar hotels possible.
Once a permanent base of any sort - even a hotel - is on the moon,a
lunar bank is possible.

None of this requires changing the OST. Since the OST recognizes the
ownership of improvements. And that gives the owners easement on the
underlying property their improvements are built upon.

The lunar bank is something that's a little more clever. Nations
cannot built bases on celestial bodies or have military personnel
operating a base in space. Nations basically have no rights in
space. So, the easement that a hotel operator has on his property on
the moon, because he has rights to the improvements he erected, gives
him pretty much absolute authority to run that hotel or other asset as
he sees fit - providing he doesn't violate the rules spelled out in
the OST.

He's sort of like a ship flying the flag of a country of his choosing
navigating international waters. Except the ship never comes back to
home port. And many of the laws of the sea that constrain a ship in
international waters - do not apply.

So, the hotel operator could offer a wide range of services and
products, that might be illegal to offer in his home country,or any
home country.

The most profitable of these would be banking services. The most
valued would be a place for former dictators and so forth to retire
to.

With global communications satellites and reliable digital signalling
to a banking computer on the moon, a lunar bank could provide a wide
range of banking and insurance services from virtual branches in the
global wireless broadband service - and basically create a micro-
banking version of the major international banks that operate in tax
havens throughout the world.

In this way trillions of dollars could be deposited in the lunar bank
and the availability of liquid assets would provide a great deal of
stability out of all proportion to the size of the lunar colony or its
population. Fewer than 7 million people live in Switzerland but that
nation by virtue of its banking laws and status as a tax haven hold
the majority of the assets of 7 billion.

A lunar bank could be set up with little more than a grounded solar
powered communication satellite with perhaps an inflatable hut nearby
- which would grow in power and prestige as time went on and the hut
grew to a collection of outbuildings and a town a village and
ultimately a great metropolis.

This could all be done without mining the moon or violating the treaty
in any way.

Just as the fellow who was not permitted to leave the Paris Airport
was a man without a country because he didn't want to return to his
native land, so too, could people who renounce their birth citizen
ship and do not seek to be citizens of any other nation, could live in
limbo at the colony - and be the first lunar citizens. Like the first
settlers at Botany Bay they may be the most successful and notorious
criminals of the age, but their offspring will be the citizens of a
new off-world Republic of the Moon. And they will definitely have
claim that they didn't sign the OST in the middle fo the 20th century.