Who owns the Asteroids? and who owns the moon?

[MHz]

I doubt he would say, "Why isn't this ****er slowing down?"

 

[Spade]

"All men have the stars," he answered, "but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travellers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For my businessman they were wealth. But all these stars are silent. You-- you alone-- will have the stars as no one else has them--"
The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry

 

[MapleDog]

I can see your point of view but don't that rather invite a new age of super-powerful companies which essentially end up ruling the world, perhaps not in our best interest?

Hint of what could happen,we'd get companies like.

OCP "Robocop"
Weylan Yutani "Alien"

 

[hermanntrude]

So is that whoever catches it first of lives to tell about it when one crashes to the earth?

One 'project' I saw has mining on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. They never really gave the data for how much fuel would be meeded to brake from crashing into the big planet of how much of the mined fuel would be used escaping the big planet's gravity. Would that be equal to what is sused to get off the earth and then multiply it by the planet's size difference? (in gravitational mass)

I think it's rather more complicated than that. The cheapest method of slowing down is to enter into an orbit which leaves you "captured" and then simply circularise it with your thrusters. You can also use aerobraking within the actual atmosphere, but i doubt any spaceship is likely to use direct braking, for two reasons: 1) too expensive... massive quantities of fuel needed 2) generally you don't approach the planet directly but in an orbit around the sun which happens to coincide with the planet.

I expect so far as the asteroids are concerned it will be a matter of whoever gets there first and has the money to exploit the resources. Most asteroids are not very big and they are one hell of a long way out. As for the Moon, the US flag on it notwithstanding I expect it will be treated like Antarctica with no one allowed to make territorial claims.

The plans i have seen are for near-earth asteroids, which although not as plentiful as the ones in the asteroid belt, still add up to an enormous mineral wealth. Also the word "small" can be applied to a very large object in this context. An asteroid the size of manhattan would be considered very small, but is still larger than your average platinum mine, and if you choose correctly, much much richer.

 

[Bar Sinister]

The plans i have seen are for near-earth asteroids, which although not as plentiful as the ones in the asteroid belt, still add up to an enormous mineral wealth. Also the word "small" can be applied to a very large object in this context. An asteroid the size of manhattan would be considered very small, but is still larger than your average platinum mine, and if you choose correctly, much much richer.

I expect then, that the minerals on such an asteroid would have mined and refined in space, as transporting them through the Earth's atmosphere would be very expensive. Either that or some sort of space elevator would have to be developed to move materials down to the surface economically.

 

[hermanntrude]

I expect then, that the minerals on such an asteroid would have mined and refined in space, as transporting them through the Earth's atmosphere would be very expensive. Either that or some sort of space elevator would have to be developed to move materials down to the surface economically.

send em down by parachute

 

[karrie]

I think asteroids and moon should be under separate regulations. Asteroids should be first come, first serve, but only open to mining by publicly traded companies. (ie, not benefitting any one nation). As for the moon, it should be regulated and mined only for that which we can't get here. I do believe I've read before that helium is one we'll be needing to head to the moon for in the future.

 

[Bar Sinister]

send em down by parachute

Wouldn't work. The amount of finished product available by that technique would be so small that the operation would not be cost effective. The economic exploitation of space is going to require a major technological breakthrough; something on the order of the development of electricity in the 19th and 20th centuries. Right now I don't now of any promising technology that would get humans on and off the planet cheaply, however, it is possible that somewhere someone is working on the basics of that technology, just as in the beginning of the 19th century many scientists were working on the basics of electricity.

 

[Niflmir]

Possession is always 9-tenths of the law.

Not anymore, with EULA's and other typical contracts of adhesion. I don't own my books, I don't own my movies, I don't own my bank cards, I don't own my money, I don't own my video games, heck, I don't even own the land that I supposedly own. It is very strange how ownership is changing in this regard.

I can see your point of view but don't that rather invite a new age of super-powerful companies which essentially end up ruling the world, perhaps not in our best interest?

We can always regulate them after the fact. That is usually the best way. So long as the regulations actually come. If they end up showering the Earth with meteorites... that is not cool.