tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post3016537225512782637..comments2024-03-27T00:26:31.343-07:00Comments on The Commercial Space Blog: Opportunities for Mining Operations on the Moon & MarsChuck Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09506476753520146858noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post-21773431387976952642012-02-21T09:09:02.672-08:002012-02-21T09:09:02.672-08:00To provide a supportive but additional view point ...To provide a supportive but additional view point to Chuck Black, an old friend of mine who used to work at UNICOPUS said to me once: "There is no one on Earth employed to enforce the various Space Treaties "Common Heritage of Mankind" clauses." <br /><br />The very same friend also suggested that one could retrieve the resources from the Moon or asteroids and provide those resources for free to anyone who could pay for the service of retrieving those resources.<br /><br />One could also register the mining company in a country that did not ratify any of the various Treaties that discuss common heritage.<br /><br />But I will supposed Chuck's statement. The laws will adapt themselves once someone actually goes up and starts conducting real and serious mining efforts.Talmon Firestonehttp://www.re-labs.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post-85459745584756735892012-02-21T07:01:59.515-08:002012-02-21T07:01:59.515-08:00Chapman discusses the legal aspects of mining in h...Chapman discusses the legal aspects of mining in his presentation beginning on slide 16. <br /><br />His perception is that the concept of "legal possession" has historically been dependent almost entirely on actual, physical possession of the resources combined with the ability to defend the physical possession against intruders.<br /><br />So possession comes first and (over time) the legal code changes to reflect the actual ownership.<br /><br />He expects that this won't change in the near future, no matter where the claimed resources happen to be located.Chuck Blackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09506476753520146858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6618880.post-34241564035917814372012-02-21T06:11:30.684-08:002012-02-21T06:11:30.684-08:00The single most imprtant obstacle in the way of ex...The single most imprtant obstacle in the way of extra terrestrial mining & exploitation is the current inability of commercial enterprises to actually own the land and resources that they extract. The current outer space treaties prohibit countries from exerting territorial ownership of any body in the solar ssytem. Without that territorial "ownership" it becomes impossible , in today's business world, to create contracts and recieve legal protection that has any legitimacy on Earth. Withuot clear ownership of resoureces and an established method of litigating and resolving commercial disputes, businesses are never going to risk their own money on exploration and exploitation or on developing the technologies needed to harvest those resources.<br /><br />If Governments want to explore, aerospace-type companies will happily develop that ahrdware for the governments, but the real money is held by resource companies: mining, oil, energy, etc. These companies could easily fund 20 billion dollar efforts to harvest resources if, and only if, they could claim ownership of what they find. Otherwise, they're not interested. And that's another parallel to terrestrial mining and development; commercial enterprises need to own the profit for them to be willing to own the risk.Paul Robertsnoreply@blogger.com