Who Owns The Moon And The Most Important Era Of Science To Date

I'd like to start things off with a quote from 2005 NASA administrator Michael Griffin. 

In the long run a single-planet species will not survive ... If we humans want to survive for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, we must ultimately populate other planets. Now, today the technology is such that this is barely conceivable. We're in the infancy of it. ... I'm talking about that one day, I don't know when that day is, but there will be more human beings who live off the Earth than on it. We may well have people living on the moon. We may have people living on the moons of Jupiter and other planets. We may have people making habitats on asteroids ... I know that humans will colonize the solar system and one day go beyond.

By 2013 the first commercial space flights will be up and running and the average moderately wealthy geeks will get their first look at something they've only dreamt of. It will mark the first major step in our infancy stage of humans leaving earth for life on other planets. As non-hyped as this seems, this is actually going to be a landmark event in our world's history that will forever effect our lives.

This is something lawmakers really need to jump on top of. Putting highly trained professionals in orbit is one thing, but regular joe schmoes with a lot of dough is quite another. If an astronaut stabs another astronaut on the moon (it's never happened) they are bound by the laws of their country and punished appropriately as such. Federal employees with extensive screening are one thing, but what about the general public traveling up to space? A fatal brawl between countries could cause a sticky situation to say the least, if not a chain reaction panic induced catastrophe throughout the ship. 

Maybe nothing will happen, but I doubt it. The assailant of the first homicide in space would essentially become the Herostratus of the 21st century, forever immortalized because he was the first to do something so hainus. Not to give any praise or encouragement towards the action, but I'm just saying someone crazy will get the idea eventually, and we need to be able to punish them when the time comes. So who owns space? Who owns the moon? These are the questions we must answer so there can be some uniform legislation to put these questions to rest and quick.  The answer is that no one owns the moon yet, but that can be changed relatively quickly.

This is where someone jumps in and screams "MOOOOOOON TREATY!!!!" and begins to flame the bottom of the comments. Before you do that, I will concede that a Moon Treaty was passed by 185 nations years back that forbade the purchase of any celestial objects. What most people don't know is that only 6 countries actually signed that law, and not one of which were nations involved in the space race currently. This means the law is meaningless and as of now, the moon is still up for grabs.

Why would a country want to own the moon you may ask? Think ahead to the future. This is the first step towards multi planet living in our galaxy! Whomever controls the moon serves as the jumpoff point for all future endeavors into the furthest reaches of space hundreds of years from now. That means lots of oppurtunity to contract to corporate investors looking to build, and lots and lots of money. The owner of the moon will essentially be at the forefront for all lunar development, patent rights, and taxing which creates even more revenue.

This is something so significant in terms of financial gain, that it could create years of debate, bad relations, and even war between countries. To avoid the latter, we should really be pressing our representatives to address these issues before they are forced to. What do you think? 

Email Me: MickJoest@Geektyrant.com Twitter: @MickJoest