An interesting discussion of international law and the rights of private enterprise:
Does Asteroid Mining Violate Space Law?
Opinions seem to be all over the place. A quick glance seems to suggest that American legal opinion is “sure, go for it,” while non-American opinion might trend towards “no yu can’t haz.”
But it’s a weird, untested legal area. My opinion: go for it. If anyone pitches a fit… well, the true power of law enforcement lies in *enforcement.* If the UN decides that private asteroid mining is illegal… what are they gonna do about it?
A secondary benefit to the future might come about if the US decides it’s legal and the UN decides otherwise: the risk of conflict in space would increase. While this might seem to be a *bad* thing, just consider the possibilities:
Alternate Reality A – it’s legal, nobody messes with the miners, and 500 space miners ply their trade, and add a few trillio0n to the US GDP annually.
Alternate Reality B – the UN declares it illegal and tries to mess with the miners. 500 miners ply their trade and add a few trillion to the us GDP annually. A hundred UN space pirates try to mess with the miners. A hundred US Colonial Marines are permanently stationed to fight off the space pirates.
The result would be an increase in space activity. Kinda rough in the beginning, ut the exploitation of space might go faster. Of course, this would require an American government that thought that it was right and proper for American companies to make buckets of money in and from space. Fortunately, unless Planetary Resources is much further along than they’ve revealed, it will be several Presidential election cycles before they start scraping platinum off of nearby asteroids.
BONUS: It might incentivize the UN to pull up stakes from NYC and relocate to Geneva or some such. I understand that this would be just fine with most New Yorkers.