Re:Mining in Space Could Lead to Conflicts on Earth
by ajmurmann on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @10:39AM
(#11527275)
What qualifies as "occupying"? Does a person need to live there (not viable for small asteroids) or is it enough if I attach I iPhone sized tagging device to it?
Re:Mining in Space Could Lead to Conflicts on Earth
by jerf on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @03:02PM
(#11529307)
"I'll know it when I see it" really will get you through at least a decade or two. It's not like the doors are going to open and twenty million people are going to emigrate to the asteroid belt overnight.
That is physically impossible.
While the international laws and conventions have lapsed, they can easily be brought back, and one of the principles of settling is that you can't claim something you can't defend. The principles will need to be tweaked a bit since the way in which "defense" is used here isn't 100% applicable, but you could easily say that you have to be occupying it, for instance. There is no way to squat on the million best asteroids.
By the time that's not true, our great-grandchildren will have worked out the principles of solving that problem. It may be fun to speculate on their answers, but it's nothing more.