HYPOTHETHICAL - Who would own this planet? Would the Outer Space Treaty govern it? Whose jurisdictio

OK, so consider this (unlikely, but not impossible) scenario:

A young man (Arthur) in England was walking towards Parliament Square, London during rush hour, when suddenly, some sort of portal/wormhole opens and he (and he alone) is sucked in.....

.....People who were standing around see this and do not get sucked in, for almost instantaneously the portal vanishes (after sucking Arthur in). The world is shocked - clearly such a thing has never occurred before. Arthur's face is plastered all over the news - the science community is abuzz.

Now, having come through the portal, Arthur subsequently finds himself on a beautiful field stretching out for miles - up in the sky he sees two bright yellow suns, with two other stars much further away. He is scared of course, but being bright, realises that he's clearly not on Earth anymore - he is clearly on another planet.

Anyway, lots of time passes; he finds that he has come out of some sort of "Stargate" (i.e. portal) which is physical and tangible and stationary, unlike the one that came out of nowhere in Westminster and vanished.

More time passes - many months (up to a year) and he has adapted to the environment and has learnt to live where he is and is still exploring his surroundings. He discovers through what seem to be maps engraved on stone that he is in some star system; but he is not even sure that he is in the same universe.

In any case, he finds some sort of cylindrical device which immediately attaches itself right the way around his arm and never comes off. At the same time, the "Stargate" (for he has set up base near his arrival point) begins to make some movements and strange noises.

After some time, it is clear that the cylindrical device somehow controls and connects the "Stargate". In the end, it opens and transports him straight back to Earth (not Westminster, this time - say, Dover for example). He realises that he can open the portal back to the strange planet at any time and seemingly from any place on Earth.

OK, so not getting too bogged down with the details and science, let us look at the main facts in light of the international political and legal issues:

- Arthur is the only one to set foot on the planet for now - the planet (from what he has seen and explored) seems empty of intelligent life, just some harmless animals and lots of plant-life etc. It seems untouched by any intelligent life (apart from the weird circumstances of the "Stargate" of course).

- Arthur is the only one who owns the "key" to the transportation portal.

- He was the first human to set foot on the planet (and was not under the orders of a government or entity or an agent of an employer - just a random occurrence).


Ergo,

Who owns the New Planet?

No one "owns" the planet.
You're thinking in homo-centric terms.

Is Arthur equipped to prevent anyone else from using, or taking up occupation on this planet if someone or some thing else were to just pop up?

Even if Arthur had, say, a gun, or a sophisticated satellite defense system with force fields and every other science fiction wonder available, what if someone, or something else shows up that can sweep all that away and do what they want?

No one truly "owns" anything except through the tolerance of anyone and everyone that can take it away, and/or the systems in place to prevent them from doing so.

Ownership, though relevant in the animal kingdom as far as marking territories is concerned, is mostly a device people like to use in thinking it gives them sole proprietary rights and access to something.
Slapping "ownership" onto a planet would require more than just a flag, or precedent for first foot step.

It's more a question of Who's around that can take it away, but will give legal consent or promise not to bother with such exploits.

Originally posted by HomoSapiensSapiens
Who owns the New Planet?

Nobody owns it by space treaty. You can read here: en.wikipedia.org...

However, there is a "hole" in this treaty. It says that any government is prohibited from claiming any celestial body. This does not mean that private persons also are prohibited. That's the reason why you can buy properties on the moon and mars because they are sold by private persons.

My personal opinion is, with some heavy aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons in the back you own everything if there's not anybody with more or stronger weapons. The history of mankind shows it well.

Originally posted by Spartanian

Originally posted by HomoSapiensSapiens
Who owns the New Planet?

Nobody owns it by space treaty. You can read here: en.wikipedia.org...

However, there is a "hole" in this treaty. It says that any government is prohibited from claiming any celestial body. This does not mean that private persons also are prohibited. That's the reason why you can buy properties on the moon and mars because they are sold by private persons.

My personal opinion is, with some heavy aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons in the back you own everything if there's not anybody with more or stronger weapons. The history of mankind shows it well.

Good point here! Probably a few very wealthy families are owners of planet Earth, and are now into owning other planets a well!

Hypothetically, the question is completely irrelevant due to our lack of understanding.

reply to post by Just Chris


Do you mean that you do not understand the scenario?