Who "Owns" The Moon?

This may sound like a question that a 3 year-old would ask, but it's something that I've been mulling around in my big 'ol stupid head here lately.
Now that the cat is out of the bag about significant water resources on the moon (significant in comparison to nothing versus something: ie...as in, first we were told, "Stupid Girl, there is no water on the moon. Not even a trace." Now we are told, "Stupid Girl, there is even more water on the moon than the Sahara Desert!"...), it seems like there is a global scramble to begin harvesting (ehr, "raping" is more like it...) the resources available up there just like we have done down here.
But water would not be a renewable resource on the moon. Once it's gone, there is no atmosphere to return it to the surface to be absorbed.
Once the water is removed, what would the amount of displaced density from the water be compared to the total density of the moon? Significant enough to affect the gravitational relationship with earth?
Who says WHO gets to take WHAT from the moon? Or who gets to take what TO the moon, for that matter? Both of which could ultimately affect density.

We have no studies, only speculation, as to what the critical mass would have to be to begin to affect the terminal velocity and gravitational influence of our moon.

Right now it just seems like for whomever has the financial capability and exploratory resources, it is a first come first serve free-for-all once you get outside earth's atmosphere.
So seriously, who owns the moon?
Who will be the ultimate cause of the catastrophic repercussions possibly had by interfering with the unknowns of our moon?
This is something that affects the entire human race and mankind as we know it & they are pelting the moon with satellites and rockets just to see what happens and what shows up in the hole.....for cryin' out loud...

I realize that taking water from the moon to bring down to earth is an ignorant concept, however we have been witness to even more ignorance from TPTB, have we not?
I realize that the moon is huge, but man is fully capable of effecting the major physical reshaping of his environment.
Just imagine the weight of Manhattan Island--what if 10 of those were moved to the moon? Surely that would have some sort of impact, eh?

OMG .....I posted this thread in the "Space Exploration" forum!!!

Why has it showed up in the Alien forum??!?

Moderator, please help this Stupid Girl get her thread in the right forum....

reply to post by stupid girl


The answer to your question, apparently, can be found here.

A loophole in Space Law allows individuals and companies to hold Mineral Rights on the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies. Growing concern from Scientists that these rights may be held hostage have been alleviated by a three man North American team; Dr. Joseph Resnick, Dr. Timothy R. O'Neill and Guy Cramer (ROC-Resnick/O'Neill/Cramer team) who have acquired the mineral rights for 95% of the side of the moon that faces Earth, the polar regions and 50% of the far side of the moon.

After setting aside 8.9 million acres around Apollo 11 Lunar landing site and designated as a "World Heritage Site". The ROC team announced that it was holding more than 75% of the Lunar Mineral rights to allow for the extraction of Helium-3 and other minerals for the advancement of Space Exploration, Earth and Space Sciences and safer more efficient energy production.

Hrm... who'd have thunk it?

~Heff

The moon is owned by a small group of anynomous Latin American meat packing glitterati.

reply to post by Anttyk47


okay that's just funny
I guess I'm crazy for thinking that we're going to pick apart the moon until it wastes away into nothing

LOL...
According to Miccey Law, I OWNS the MOONS in this system....

US law what law, Russian...Are you guys for real...
Theres a LAW that decides who owns the moon...

Hilarious...

So when Usbekistan sends its low budget fleet of spacemarines to the far
side and set up base, what then...

YOU CANT OWN A CELESTIAL BODUY IN SPACE as a countrie...

The race of humans can, "PERHAPS"?!?!?

The Earth owns the moon.

The moment humanity begins to rape the moon is when the Earth decides to rape humanity.

reply to post by stupid girl


Why waste time trying to squeeze water out of a rock when we could send probes to Europa and bring back tons of water? Anyways, give it 25-30 years and you'll see the big company names setting up shop on the Moon.

Oh to answer your question OP, the Moon belongs to the international community. More specifically the UN under its Outer Space Treaty. An addendum to the aforementioned treaty was added known as the Moon Treaty or Moon Agreement. Like I initially said, the corporate oligarchs will end up plundering and pillaging the Lunar resources for profit.

reply to post by stupid girl


I would guess that who owns the moon would be whoever built the moon. Maybe Moon Matrix will answer some of your questions.

The moon does have an atmosphere (according to research papers many decades ago apparently), it's just very very small.

I personally think the moon is owned by the folks it's always been owned by, who are not 'us'.

I'm sure if we get obnoxious enough about it someone will let us know. It looks like it might be headed that way. That would make things more . . . ah, interesting.

RC

The moon isn't owned by anything. The rules are more or less the same as those of international waters. it is most likely that in teh futher colonised space will also be more of a joint venture even thou Earth will remain a patchwork of nations and unions. It is for the better; owning stuff in space usually leads to further escalation of conflicts.

People claiming to 'own' a part of the moon have no legality of it whatsoever since they couldn't have obtained it in a legal way. Technically the US could claim teh moon for themselves because of the American Flag planted during the Apollomissions. But doing so is stupid because of two reasons;

1) The US could never defend it's own lunar terratory.
2) It would be a selfish move that would spread internation conflict interplanetary.

Next to that it would also endanger futher space exploration, nations would retract coorporation with eachother and joint venture projects like ISS will seize to exist thus hampering mans exploration in space.

reply to post by Hefficide


Isn't there a company that claims that they have legally claimed moon? They sell lots to people on the net.

Originally posted by AncientShade
Technically the US could claim teh moon for themselves because of the American Flag planted during the Apollomissions.

Technically the US cannot claim the moon, last time I checked they (and most of the world) had signed and ratified the Outer Space Treaty, prohibiting anyone from claiming the moon.

reply to post by stupid girl


its acually quite a good question
one half of me says first person to p[lant a flag and proclaim its theres

the other half of me says
the moon is owned by the race that parked it there
lol

xp

reply to post by merka


Not anyone. Doesn't it specifically apply only to countries. That's why there is this claim out there that a private company has made the claim.

reply to post by PsykoOps


Apparently there is a slew of companies doing exactly that!

Interesting side note...

The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies,[1] better known as the Moon Treaty or Moon Agreement, is an international treaty that turns jurisdiction of all heavenly bodies (including the orbits around such bodies) over to the international community. Thus, all activities must conform to international law (notably this includes the UN Charter).

In practice, it is a failed treaty since it has not been ratified by any nation which engages in self-launched manned space exploration or has plans to do so (e.g. the United States, European Union, Russian Federation, People's Republic of China, Japan, and India) since its creation in 1979, and thus has a negligible effect on actual spaceflight.

Source

Everyone ready for space jihad? How about WW Moon? The whole thing appears to be up for grabs!

~Heff

PS: if there are any interested buyers I know a guy who knows a guy...

Nobody can own the moon, but a few years back they started selling land packages on the moon. So who were these people and were they from a government?

reply to post by merka


Depends, if they tear up the treaty and go back they, technically, could. But it would be stupid to do so, there is no way to back the claim up in resources. Also, if they would back up out of the treaty tjust to control the moon, everybody would back out of it and we would probably have a very interesting and violent next century.

reply to post by Redevilfan09

There was a company set up some years ago, selling small packages of land on the moon.
It was more of a novelty gift idea, that became a mini fad.
It was tested out in court I think and wasn't deemed legal.
I have one of these packages, given to me as a christmas gift.
The company was called 'Big Cheese'