Who can "own" Mars?

[Flyback]

I was reading The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin and, beyond debating his idea in general (on a low-cost, very-soon colonization of Mars), it had me thinking.

Lets say that NASA (and all other space agencies) fails to make plans for Mars. In 50 years time if the technology was available, and there were corporate interests, a privately owned colonization could occur. Up until this point let us imagine that no one was on Mars.

Would the party involved have rights to own the whole thing? Who could dispute it? It might not have to necessarily be a corporation, but rather an extremely rich person/dynasty could amass the tools, ships, whatever to make it happen through their own privately-owned space agency (far off future).

If they touched down and erected defenses all around the planet--do they have a legitimate "ownership" of the whole thing? (and launched the existing rovers on the surface back into space )

I'm thinking about the far-off future when a privately-owned adventure could try and harvest the resources of Mars without concern for future human-led colonization and permanent living scenarios.

Do they have "property rights" in a legitimate sense?

 

[Leros]

Whoever has the biggest army.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Originally posted by: Leros
Whoever has the biggest army.

What he said. Whoever has the guns and the people to defend it, own it.

 

[Flyback]

Originally posted by: Leros
Whoever has the biggest army.

Excellent

 

[So]

Whoever puts the first boots on the ground to stay owns it, period. If it is the arm of a corporation, then that corporation becomes a defacto government until such time as the colonists revolt. If that corporation remains headquartered in one nation and not as a multinational, it makes mars effectively a colony of the home country.

 

[theGlove]

if there's oil on it, bush is probably working on an attack plan

 

[Flyback]

Originally posted by: So
Whoever puts the first boots on the ground to stay owns it, period. If it is the arm of a corporation, then that corporation becomes a defacto government until such time as the colonists revolt. If that corporation remains headquartered in one nation and not as a multinational, it makes mars effectively a colony of the home country.

What if it had no colonists, though. If it was merely one person in control of highly-organized robots?

 

[K1052]

Cohaagen.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

There are treaties in place that say no one "owns" space. That is why spy satellites can fly over Russia and china and they can fly theres over ours. Now if someone actually lands on mars, I would assume that treaties would be worked out to divide it up amongst those who can actually get there.

 

[fLum0x]

al gore.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
There are treaties in place that say no one "owns" space. That is why spy satellites can fly over Russia and china and they can fly theres over ours. Now if someone actually lands on mars, I would assume that treaties would be worked out to divide it up amongst those who can actually get there.

Treaties only work while people follow them. Ask the Native Americans about that.

As soon as somebody wants Mars, people will ignore the treaties and take it. I assume a government who can defend Mars has enough power to ignore the treaty and get away with it.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: BrunoPuntzJones

Originally posted by: Leros
Whoever has the biggest army.

What he said. Whoever has the guns and the people to defend it, own it.

I tend to agree.

We apparently have a treaty stating that no earth nations can claim ownership of an extra-terrestrial body

The claim is considered absurd by several legal analysts, who say a 1967 international treaty forbids ownership of property beyond Earth.

What nation on earth has a jurisdiction that far from their boundaries? Whoever gets there, claims it & defends would own is my guess.

But I wonder what the natives would think?

Fern

 

[NiteWulf]

Originally posted by: Fern
But I wonder what the natives would think.

Fern

They'd be annoyed that we only gave them a big bead for the planet and all of the buggalo

 

[50cent1228]

i own mars...sry its not for sale

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Flyback

Originally posted by: So
Whoever puts the first boots on the ground to stay owns it, period. If it is the arm of a corporation, then that corporation becomes a defacto government until such time as the colonists revolt. If that corporation remains headquartered in one nation and not as a multinational, it makes mars effectively a colony of the home country.

What if it had no colonists, though. If it was merely one person in control of highly-organized robots?

How do robots change anything? The point is, he who controls it, and has force in place, owns it.

 

[yllus]

If you get there first and can stop other people from landing on it, it's yours.

 

[50cent1228]

Originally posted by: yllus
If you get there first and can stop other people from landing on it, it's yours.

i already own it

 

[HN]

I would imagine whoever controls the spice controls the planet

 

[dainthomas]

Originally posted by: 50cent1228

Originally posted by: yllus
If you get there first and can stop other people from landing on it, it's yours.

i already own it

What kind of bandwidth do you get posting from there?

 

[Newfie]

Shotgun!

 

[BatmanNate]

Chuck Norris owns the deed to Uranus.

 

[RaiderJ]

I definitely made a crappy investment in Pluto. It's not even a planet now! That's the last timeshare I get into.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: dainthomas

Originally posted by: 50cent1228

Originally posted by: yllus
If you get there first and can stop other people from landing on it, it's yours.

i already own it

What kind of bandwidth do you get posting from there?

I shudder to think of the latency. No multiplayer FPSes for you!

 

[jman19]

We should fly Arnold there to claim Mars for the US :thumbsup:

"Gehjuazztoomarz"

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: yllus

Originally posted by: dainthomas

Originally posted by: 50cent1228

Originally posted by: yllus
If you get there first and can stop other people from landing on it, it's yours.

i already own it

What kind of bandwidth do you get posting from there?

I shudder to think of the latency. No multiplayer FPSes for you!

If he'd just move all the servers there, he'd be the pwnage!!