[FPSPACE] The Discovery Enterprise: Does the United States ofAmerica own the Moon?

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Michael Bonnici [mailto:albonnici at vol.net.mt] 
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2007 12:57 AM
 
> Does Russia's recent claim to the Arctic seabed automatically 
> mean that all United Nations treaties to date become void? In 
> addition, does Russia's recent stance have any future bearing 
> on how nations will conduct themselves in outer space?

 Russia's arctic stunt is entirely reasonable considering
 the complicated process leading to settlement of the issue.

 Denmark/Greenland is Russia's main contender for the pole
 region, so the issue has been well covered in Danish national
 newspapers. From memory each country signing up for the UN
 treaty is given a number of years from that date to establish
 the justification for their entitlement, which is to be based on
 undersea extensions of their territory. The Lomonosov ridge is
 key to Russia's hopes. As the arctic countries have signed up
 in different years their deadlines are not identical.
 Presumably the issue will be settled only when the last deadline
 has been reached, maybe by the UN, maybe in the Hague. Time will
 tell. There is no indication that Russia will not abide by that
 coming settlement, quite the contrary.

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark