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Here is part of the text. The full column is at:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/856672.asp
April 30, 2003
BEYOND (OR BEFORE?) STAR TREK
By Glenn Reynolds
Alan Wasser is all in favor of human colonization of outer space. But despite my earlier posts about the influence of Star Trek, he has mixed feelings about the show. The reason, he says, is that science-fiction shows like the Star Trek series, the Star Wars movies, and so on, have given people a sense of inevitability about the colonization of outer space that saps their willingness to actually work in favor of that outcome today. ?People actually say that to me,? he exclaims. ?We?ll have the Enterprise one day, so why worry??
Wasser doesn?t think we should take it for granted. A long-term space enthusiast (he covered the early space launches as a TV newsman, and now serves on the board of directors of the National Space Society), he thinks we need to be to settle outer space now.
I think he?s right, of course, and I also think he?s right in identifying property rights as a crucial element in advancing space settlement. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids nations from claiming territory in outer space (specifically, it forbids ?national appropriation?) but it doesn?t, in the opinion of most experts, forbid private property rights.
Wasser has a proposal he calls the Space Settlement Initiative that would reward people who established a beachhead on the Moon with secure property rights. Legal scholar Wayne White has made a somewhat similar proposal.
The Space Settlement Initiative:
http://www.spacesettlement.ORG
Josh, Cindy, Soph, et al...
Have you read the proposal?
Dave
Rob:
Once again you seem to be forgetting something: under this plan, no one would take title to Lunar real estate UNTIL getting to the moon and staying there.
You are so worried about a real estate "bubble" bursting. First of all, I don't think this market has to become a bubble, and that the bubble has to burst.
But even if it did become a bubble, that would still be a lot better than the situation we have now. Right now there is little private investment in space, and little chance private enterprise can go to the moon. In other words...I would rather a "bubble" market in Lunar real estate than no market at all.
Do other people reading this agree with me?
Dave
RobS:
How much will those land deeds be worth? After a
lot of careful research I have guesses, but you are
welcome to your own different guesses.
The truth will never be known until there is a real
market - and that can't happen until some one actually
develops safe affordable reliable human space
transport and uses it to establish a true permanent
settlement on the Moon or Mars.
Only THEN will we - and his investors - finally know
for sure whether it was worth it or not. My guess is
it certainly will have been worth it, and then some, but,
to be honest, that is not my primary concern!
I care that someone THOUGHT it would be worth
enough to invest sufficient money time and genius
to develop that space transport.
Like the farmer holding a carrot on a stick out in
front of his horse, I care most that we get where
we want to go.
It matters somewhat less to me that - after we are
there - the horse finds the carrot delicious enough
to have been worth taking us there.
I also care a lot less which other countries choose
to recognize the claims because realistically, the U.S.
is the 900 pound gorilla in world economics today.
The financial opportunity the settlement would get by
being allowed into the U.S. market would dwarf the
value of being able to sell in China, for example.
On the other hand, since the proposal calls for the
U.S. to offer reciprocity to other nations, (we each
recognize the other's citizen's claims just like our
own citizen's) it is likely that most would jump on
the band wagon eventually to get a piece of the pie.
Dave Brett
Bill:
Please read the proposal more carefully. No nation
can "grant" Lunar or Marian real estate. Over and
over we keep repeating that we are NOT suggesting
any such thing!
But a private settlement - once it has succeeded in
developing space transport and is actually and truly
in use and occupation of Lunar land - could make a
claim of its own, to private ownership to a big hunk
of land around its base.
If that happened, every nation could choose to
recognize that claim or not, - that is, to treat the
settlement as the true owner of some land which
is not located under that nation's sovereignty.
The best analogy is how the U.S. would treat a
Parisian who came to New York and sold a rich
American the deed to a French estate the Parisian
claimed to own.
Let's say the American later wanted to get out of
paying, and said the Frenchman really didn't own
the land. Because the sale took place in the U.S.,
it would be the U.S. courts that would be asked
to settle it, even though no one says the land itself
is under U.S. sovereignty.
Any nation's decision to recognize a settlement's
claim of Lunar land ownership would allow the
settlement to sell deeds to pieces of its Lunar land
to citizens of that nation, and expect to have that
nation's civil courts accept the validity of those deeds.
What we want is for the U.S. to agree to recognize
such a claim so that the settlement can sell pieces
of its land - in markets located inside the U.S. - and
have U.S. courts take those sales as seriously as
any other land sale.
That would create a tremendous opportunity for a true
settlement effort, once it actually has succeeded - to
get back a lot of money quickly - selling pieces of
paper printed on Earth, to people on Earth, most of
whom will never choose to visit their Lunar land.
Dave Brett
The Space Settlement Initiative web site is now at:
http://www.SpaceSettlement.ORG
This is a plan to encourage space development by
promising to reward successful ventures with Lunar
or Martian real estate.
The web site discusses the economic thinking behind
the proposal. It also explains why the reward would not
violate international laws such as the 1967 Outer Space
Treaty. We hope you will take a look, and give us your
feedback.
Thanks,
Dave Brett
Webmaster
The Space Settlement Initiative web site has moved to:
http://www.spacesettlement.org/
This is a plan to encourage space development by committing, in advance, to reward entrepreneurial space settlements with some of the multi-billion dollar land value of Lunar or Martian real estate.
The Space Settlement Initiative's web site includes a Q&A section featuring a discussion of the economics, an explanation of how this reward for settlement could make privately funded settlement worth investing in without violating international laws such as the Outer Space Treaty, and a first draft of the proposed legislation.
Please visit the site and give us your feedback!
Dave Brett
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