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| Monday / 18 September 2006 | ||
Serious Public
Discussions on Lunar Property Rights.
Nature recently
featured a concise, accurate article on
the current debate over lunar property rights. "What Dennis Hope
does
is a bad idea, as it's making it harder to promote a realistic and
good
idea,"
says
Space
Settlement
Institute Chair Alan Wasser about the Lunar Embassy founder,
who has claimed ownership of the Moon since 1980 and sells lunar
land deeds to the public. "On the plus side, it's a useful market
test." According to Planetary Society Executive Director Louis Friedman,
"Right now it's more science fiction, utopia, just dreams." Things
might have been different had it not been for the 1967 United Nations
Outer Space Treaty, which forbids governments from claiming land
on the Moon. The treaty, signed by all the space powers and 125 countries
in all, ensured that the race to the Moon would only be that -- a
race, with no necessity for Moon development to maintain an edge
in the
Cold War. The USA would likely not have signed had it known how far
ahead it was of the USSR human Moon program. "If national appropriation
of lunar territory had not been banned, there
would
be many people
living
on the Moon today," says Wasser, whose organization is formulating
US legislation allowing for sensible land claims. Some experts think
the treaty bans lunar land claims, others don't. The 1979 Moon Treaty
included excluded by individuals, but no major space powers signed
on. Friedman remembers advising the US Senate against it and many
thought it was unnecessary due to the 1967 treaty implying a ban
on private ownership as well. "All we need to do, is reinterpret
[it]," says
Wasser. "What's important though is that we have stimulated and opened
up a wider debate," says Francis Williams, the United
Kingdom's Lunar Embassy representative. Many other organizations
are selling lunar land claims, some serious,
some not.
It may be the right time for further discussion, says Nature writer
Arran Frood.
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