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Comment by danielbln | Hacker News Reader

So, uh, who owns the moon, and that tunnel in particular? Is it first come first serve?

No one does according to the Outer Space Treaty. No one can according to the Moon Treaty. (Thankfully the major powers didn’t ratify that one.) In practice, common law has ruled that physical possession constitutes ownership with the precedent of the Apollo artifacts and Lunakhod rover.

Whoever gets there first, and can realistically form a threat credible enough to defend it.

You’ll probably need the backing of a nuclear power, although off-world representation of earthly countries might not turn out to be particularly credible threats (enough to intimidate new emerging space-based powers), or remain truly politically cohesive with their root terrestrial counterparts, depending...

Or maybe the people who get there can just agree to cooperate instead and share the land, unlike how we do things down here.

One can dream.

This is actually the way the Outer Space Treaty is written - a state party to it retains jurisdiction over any object it launches, but is required to keep it open to "representatives" of other state parties.

For a more complete look at the legal issues involved, seehttp://www.thespacereview.com/article/3286/1

That checks out. There is a treaty but space-faring nations have not signed it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Treaty

I have the sinking feeling we'll be teaching space marksmanship to our next batch of astronauts.

If it came to blows, chances are that the battles would be fought on Earth. Launching anything is expensive. Launching anything manned is prohibitively expensive. Armaments would just increase the cost and the risk.

Launching a rock back at earth would probably be quite cheap given you need to have propellents on hand to be there in the first place. So at some point of habitation, moon based folks will bid for Independence.

“Possession is 9/10th of the law” would appear especial relevant on the moon. However the United Nations Outer Space Treaty agreed that no one can claim sovereignty. https://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2014/02/lunar-proper...

Dennis hope [0]

I do recall buying an acre as a fun present back in the day..

0: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2654045/Id-buy-moon-...

1st google hit, but seems fittingly trash..

You were swindled.

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