My last blog was about the question of private ownership of celestial bodies by firms that mine asteroids. Current United Nation international space law prohibits any such ownership. There is a new bill named the ASTEROIDS Act pending in the U.S. Congress that would at least allow asteroid mining companies to own what they mine and return to Earth. This appears to be prohibited by internal space law.
My last few blogs have been about the framework of international law under the United Nations that is supposed to govern how space faring nations conduct the exploration and exploitation of space for the benefit of all nations. I felt that this was topical because of increasing discussion of mining asteroids.
Last week I blogged about four additional International treaties that deal with the exploration of space by member of the United Nations. In light of the five international space treaties, the UN adopted five "International principles and declarations to encourage exercising the international laws as well as unified communication between countries." These five principles are listed below.
Last week I blogged about The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, the first important treaty on space law which was signed in 1967. In the same year another space treaty was signed called the Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
With all the talk about private space enterprise and exploring the moon, the issue of who owns what and who can stake a claim to exploit space resources has become significant. I thought that this would be a good time to post a blog entry about the main treaty that governs exploration and exploitation of space.
