Daily Mail
February 3, 2017
This year, five space mining companies plan to send missions to the lunar surface in the hopes of mining the moon for precious metals.
But a caveat in international space law could prevent the firms from cashing in.
The law states that parties can’t appropriate any part of space, and if they do, the materials extracted will have to be fairly distributed.
The warning comes from Professor Sa’id Mosteshar, director of the London Space institute of Property and Law, who told The Sun: ‘Once it becomes feasible [to mine the moon] the whole range of space treaties will kick in and the 16 member states that have ratified it will raise an objection to appropriating any part of outer space.
‘There is an international treaty to which virtually every country in the world is a party to and that parties cannot appropriate any part of Space.
‘Any individual they authorise to carry out Space activities must be subject to control.’
This article was posted: Friday, February 3, 2017 at 10:06 am