[FPSPACE] Sovereignty on the Moon?

[James Oberg]

Sovereignty on the Moon?

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2286/sovereignty-on-the-moon#comment

posted Wednesday May 6, 2009 under outer-space by geoffrey_forden
I'm in Montreal for a conference on space debris. It's a wonderful city (we wondered into Chinatown for dinner last night and, spiritually, I haven't left yet) and I hope the conference is half as good. It opened today with a round table discussion on the governance of space: what can and should be agreed on to protect the commons that all space faring nations share. It's the first conference I've been dedicated to some aspect of space I have already learned one thing about such conferences that they share with conferences about nuclear energy: there is a high fraction of the participants who believe their job is to boost human space flight (or, in the case of conferences on nuclear energy, nuclear power plants). One of the panel members in the opening roundtable suggested allowing states to "own" areas of the moon provided they establish permanent human occupation there. It would, he suggested, provide significant motivation for nations to establish permanent manned moon bases. He is a lawyer, too.
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