On this earth, we are accustomed to the idea of land ownership. A piece of someone’s land, whether it is an individual, company, or country, and the owner has the right to what is done with the land. But what about the moon? Who has that?
The short answer is no one has months. That’s because of a piece of international law. The outer space agreement in 1967, was submitted by the United Nations, said that the room was no country. “Exploration and the use of space, including the moon and other celestial objects,” read (through UN), “must be done for the sake and for the benefit of all countries, regardless of their economic or scientific development levels, and will be the province of all humanity. “
This particularly includes the month, with an agreement to say that, “outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, will be free to explore and use by all countries without discrimination in any form.”
This means that legally, no country can claim to have months. Countries can plant their flags there, but this is a symbolic movement than proof of ownership. In this way, this month is similar to Antarctica, which can be visited by researchers from various countries and works but cannot claim possession.
It all sounds very egalitarian and noble in theory. But what about in practice? There is an increase in interest in moon mining for resources, and although no company or country that has tried this, only time problems before people are in a hurry to claim a piece of celestiality.
NASA recently announced it would invite private companies to test the ice plan on the moon (through NASA), such as robot landers who would land at the south pole of the moon and try to drill ice (through NASA). This body also has a plan for what can be involved in the future lunar mining (via JPL). So there is a clear interest from space institutions and private companies in technology that can extract resources from the month.
What about this legality? According to EOS.org, Science magazine published by American Geophysical Union, The U.S. Government passed legislation in 2015 which gave company rights A.S. Company to sell resources they take from the moon. Then, in 2020, an executive command strengthened this claim against space resources, including those on the moon.
Other countries are also interested in month resources, including Russia, not to mention the interests of private companies.
This legality may be complicated, because there is a legal debate on whether the NASA plan for the month is contrary to international law (through American scientific). But like many laws, it’s not a clear case of whether something is permitted or not. When the next month’s mission generation is revealed, we have to wait and see how the world countries deal with complex ownership problems in space.