"Space property rights are an important building block for colonization. The Moon and Mars will not see maximal colonization without property rights. Mineral rights, spectrum rights, rights of way, orbital slots, intellectual property, and title deeds are critical legal underpinnings to optimal development."
+ Read Article (The Space Review)
Posted by jburk at July 12, 2026 02:14 PM | TrackBackThis argument was sort of touched off last week when I made a post of a news article under the Jake Garn and the "crusade for Mars" on spacepolitics website off topic http://www.spacepolitics.com/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=224 of which it finished under Kids say the darnedest things
http://www.spacepolitics.com/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=226 .
The article that start all of the discusion was
http://www.masslive.com/living/republican/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1089186554310190.xml
.
On the note of property rights and of ownership.
"The Apollo 11 crew and other veterans of NASA’s moon missions will be presented with plaques bearing samples of lunar material at a ceremony at the National Air and Space museum next Tuesday, in honor of the 35th anniversary of the first landing on the moon."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5431472/
But they will not get to keep the lunar samples... Since no one can own such materials.
What a poor excuse...
On other notes of who owns what. Do not every American own a piece of the Nasa space probes, Satelites and anything else. Then why is it always deorbit, crash and burn they way to dispose of all these great pieces of engineering.
I just began reading the Letter on Hubble as submitted to Nasa.
http://books.nap.edu/html/Hubble_Space_Telescope/letter_report.pdf
On page 3 under the service plan options is a stated date of 2016 for the robotic de-orbit booster attachment.
Do they not realize that Hubble will most likely be inoperative long before this date around 2012.
Due impart to battery and gyro failures.
Somewhere I have read but I do not remember where, that the proposed robotic mission could cost upward to a billion dollars with no guarantee for success. Gee isn't that close to what a shuttle mission costs as indicated by past servicing missions.
Also On the shuttle first mission the Second shuttle is supposed to be readied within a 2 week period from launch of the first incase it is needed for a rescue mission. I have been reading the logs on the repair progress. I find it difficult to believe that only 2 weeks worth of work seperates the next two shuttle that will fly again early next year.