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Help me understand, how is The US Congress able to decide what is allowed or not is space?

by JoachimS 11y ago

mikeash 11y ago
They're not. They are, however, able to decide what US companies are able to do in space.
- JoachimS 11y ago
  But that implies (to me) that congress consider that they are allowed to say that mining in space is ok. They are granting a usage right to resources that is not within their jurisdiction.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    As I understood the article, the law merely discusses ownership rights of what gets brought back. If company X does action Y and recovers item Z back to Earth, then the question of whether X's ownership of Z is acknowledged under US law seems to be just the sort of thing Congress would be able to decide.
    - JoachimS 11y ago
      But that means the congress are implying that resources in space are free for anyone to take in the first place, bring brack and claim ownership of. Not something you normally can do on terra firma. Looting abroad is rarely ok, even if you pay taxes on the value of what you took when you get home. The question of the ability for private enterprises and persons to claim rights to resources in space is interesting and needs to be regulated (if its not already so) in order to open up opportunities. But at I don't see how the regulators of one nation could do this regulation.p by themselves, it needs to be an international treaty. Imho.
      - dragonwriter 11y ago
        > But that means the congress are implying that resources in space are free for anyone to take in the first place, bring brack and claim ownership of. Not something you normally can do on terra firma Its not something you can usually do on Earth because most of Earth is subject to sovereignties which have prohibited it, and to whose prohibitions other sovereignties have generally elected to give some effect.
- criddell 11y ago
  Yeah. I bet they're sending a sternly worded warning to these companies that if they go to space and bring back a trillion dollars worth of metals, there's going to be thousands of dollars of fines to be paid.
  - progressive_dad 11y ago
    hundreds of millions in taxes *Adds space accountant to the list of acceptable jobs for my son...
bmelton 11y ago
Rephrase the question more like: "How is the US Congress able to tax incomes earned by American citizens/companies in France?" If China (the government) were to go into space and start mining things, the US would likely be limited to diplomatic recourse, or if objectionable enough, perhaps war. Clearly, American government does not directly control Chinese government, but does have influence over it. If a Chinese mining company (not the government) goes into space and starts mining, the American government's course of action is likely limited to pleading with the Chinese government to restrict their mining companies from being able to do so, using the aforementioned diplomatic measures as bargaining chips in the negotiation. If however, an American mining company wants to go mine an asteroid, the US government is assuming a total control / responsibility of their actions, even while those actions are not on US soil, or even on any terran soil whatsoever. Because the US government believes it controls all US companies to the extent that they do, they believe that they could forbid an American company from mining resources not in America, or in this case, not even on Earth. This assertion is them saying that they either don't care if mining companies mine asteroids and other planets, or that they might actually acknowledge that they don't have the power to forbid it. I haven't been following it closely enough to say which kind of concession it is.

Help me understand, how is The US Congress able to decide what is allowed or not is space?

mikeash 11y ago

They're not. They are, however, able to decide what US companies are able to do in space.

JoachimS 11y ago
But that implies (to me) that congress consider that they are allowed to say that mining in space is ok. They are granting a usage right to resources that is not within their jurisdiction.
- mikeash 11y ago
  As I understood the article, the law merely discusses ownership rights of what gets brought back. If company X does action Y and recovers item Z back to Earth, then the question of whether X's ownership of Z is acknowledged under US law seems to be just the sort of thing Congress would be able to decide.
  - JoachimS 11y ago
    But that means the congress are implying that resources in space are free for anyone to take in the first place, bring brack and claim ownership of. Not something you normally can do on terra firma. Looting abroad is rarely ok, even if you pay taxes on the value of what you took when you get home. The question of the ability for private enterprises and persons to claim rights to resources in space is interesting and needs to be regulated (if its not already so) in order to open up opportunities. But at I don't see how the regulators of one nation could do this regulation.p by themselves, it needs to be an international treaty. Imho.
    - dragonwriter 11y ago
      > But that means the congress are implying that resources in space are free for anyone to take in the first place, bring brack and claim ownership of. Not something you normally can do on terra firma Its not something you can usually do on Earth because most of Earth is subject to sovereignties which have prohibited it, and to whose prohibitions other sovereignties have generally elected to give some effect.
criddell 11y ago
Yeah. I bet they're sending a sternly worded warning to these companies that if they go to space and bring back a trillion dollars worth of metals, there's going to be thousands of dollars of fines to be paid.
- progressive_dad 11y ago
  hundreds of millions in taxes *Adds space accountant to the list of acceptable jobs for my son...

bmelton 11y ago

Rephrase the question more like: "How is the US Congress able to tax incomes earned by American citizens/companies in France?" If China (the government) were to go into space and start mining things, the US would likely be limited to diplomatic recourse, or if objectionable enough, perhaps war. Clearly, American government does not directly control Chinese government, but does have influence over it. If a Chinese mining company (not the government) goes into space and starts mining, the American government's course of action is likely limited to pleading with the Chinese government to restrict their mining companies from being able to do so, using the aforementioned diplomatic measures as bargaining chips in the negotiation. If however, an American mining company wants to go mine an asteroid, the US government is assuming a total control / responsibility of their actions, even while those actions are not on US soil, or even on any terran soil whatsoever. Because the US government believes it controls all US companies to the extent that they do, they believe that they could forbid an American company from mining resources not in America, or in this case, not even on Earth. This assertion is them saying that they either don't care if mining companies mine asteroids and other planets, or that they might actually acknowledge that they don't have the power to forbid it. I haven't been following it closely enough to say which kind of concession it is.