January 2, 2013 Who Owns Outer Space? Rand Simberg looks at the
basic issues: Despite the progress in technology, and the appeal
of valuable resources, space settlement has been hampered by the
lack of a clearly defined legal regime for recognizing property
rights in space under current U.S. and international law. There
is in fact some slight internationally recognized legal
precedent for retaining ownership of resources mined in space,
as lunar samples returned to Earth on both U.S. and Soviet
missions (the latter robotically) have been exchanged for other
tokens of value. But actually owning the portion of the
celestial body from which the resources are harvested — as in a
traditional mining claim — is more problematic. Without legally
recognized rights to buy, own, and sell titled property, it is
difficult if not impossible to raise capital to develop land or
extract the resources it holds. Property rights have long been
considered one of the pillars of prosperity in the modern world,
and their absence in