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Yes: SpaceX. The Starlink ToS includes "the parties recognise Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian
by perilunar 6y ago
Yes: SpaceX. The Starlink ToS includes "the parties recognise Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities”
- angrais 6y agoI highly doubt a commercial company can argue for authority and sovereignty of a whole planet. Let's be real, if there was easier ways to get to mars and if it had resources useful to earth, then we'd already be mining there or such.
- __s 6y agoOriginal explorers from Europe were commercial companies It won't be the company that gains sovereignty, so much as the people who colonize
- dnhbt 6y ago>I highly doubt a commercial company can argue for authority and sovereignty of a whole planet. It doesn't seem like SpaceX is claiming Mars, just establishing that Mars isn't governed by an Earth country, which was already established by the Outer Space Treaty.
- Piskvorrr 6y agoDespite reiterating what the Outer Space Treaty says, this is just as useful as laying claim to it. "Whoever is sitting on it can claim it" is the more probable result, should it come to that.
- saargrin 6y agowhoever can haul cheap cargo there reliably ,including military hardware ,then praise Elon and set blasters to stun!
- JabavuAdams 6y agoSpace launch and space vehicles are very vulnerable. This means that any space launch company can be strong-armed by any nation state or even reasonably armed non-state actor unless they're defended by a nation-state.
- traverseda 6y agoOnly until they start being able to drop rocks on things... Giving a private company potential WMD's is a whole other question though.
- JabavuAdams 6y agoSure. If you can drop kinetic projectiles from orbit or higher, you don't need nukes. But you have to build a lot of infrastructure to either get that mass up there, or compel that mass to change momentum. One drone with a shaped charge could take out a fueled launch vehicle and make the bad unusable for an annoyingly long time. I hope that there are plans to defend against this.
- __s 6y agoDropping rocks on Earth to declare independence is the plot of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress