– SOURCE –
https://www.universetoday.com/145622/trump-signs-an-executive-order-allowing-mining-the-moon-and-asteroids/
APRIL 11, 2020 BY MATT WILLIAMS
Trump signs an executive order allowing mining the Moon and asteroids
In 2015, the Obama administration signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA, or H.R. 2262) into law. This bill was intended to “facilitate a pro-growth environment for the developing commercial space industry” by making it legal for American companies and citizens to own and sell resources that they extract from asteroids and off-world locations (like the Moon, Mars, or beyond).
On April 6th, the Trump administration took things a step further by signing an executive order that formally recognizes the rights of private interests to claim resources in space. This order, titled “Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources,” effectively ends the decades-long debate that began with the signing of The Outer Space Treaty in 1967.
This order builds on both the CSLCA and Space Directive-1 (SD-1), which the Trump administration signed into law on December 11th, 2017. It establishes that “Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law,” and that the United States does not view space as a “global commons.”
This order puts an end to decades of ambiguity regarding commercial activities in space, which were technically not addressed by the Outer Space or Moon Treaties. The former, formally known as “The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies“, was signed by the US, the Soviet Union, and the UK in 1967 at the height of the Space Race.
The purpose of it was to provide a common framework governing the activities of all the major powers in space. In addition to banning the placement or testing of nuclear weapons in space, the Outer Space Treaty established that the exploration and use of outer space would be carried out for the benefit “of all mankind.”
As of June 2019, the Treaty has been signed by no less than 109 countries while another 23 have signed it but have not yet completed the ratification process. At the same time, there has been an ongoing debate regarding the full meaning and implications of the Treaty. Specifically, Article II of the Treaty states that:
“Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
As the language is specific to national ownership, there has never been a legal consensus on whether or not the treaty’s prohibitions apply to private appropriation as well. Because of this, there are those who argue that property rights should be recognized on the basis of jurisdiction rather than territorial sovereignty.
Attempts to address this ambiguity led the United Nations to draft the supplemental “Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies” – aka. “The Moon Treaty” or “Moon Agreement.” Like the Outer Space Treaty, this agreement stipulated that the Moon should be used for the benefit of all humanity and that non-scientific activities should be governed by an international framework.
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