Recent relevant HN discussion: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11525788" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11525788</a><p>Anyhow, it&#x27;s premature to even be worrying about ownership rights until some person actually lands there, and even then, there&#x27;s ample historical precedent to guide us. If you&#x27;re seriously interested in this topic, spend some time with exploration-age history, because space is likely to look a lot like that, only without the ethical issues associated with ignoring the natives, which at least our local space doesn&#x27;t seem to have.<p>(And even if it does turn out Mars has some bacteria, well... Earth-bound conservationists are unlikely to hold back the progress for very long once it becomes a real possibility. It&#x27;s really easy right now to posture about how we can&#x27;t afford to colonize Mars if we would so much as tousle even one microorganism&#x27;s precious little cilia, because the choice isn&#x27;t real yet. When it is, someone&#x27;s going to go.)