Who Owns Space

Who owns Space or the moon for the matter. Well if we used the rules of claiming land, the Moon would be the America's giant orbiting colony, be cause Armstrong and Aldrin planted the American flag on the Moon, like how Christopher Columbus planted the Spanish flag in the Americas. But the Moon does not belong to any country regardless if they planted their flag on it. Because of bills passed by Congress in 1969, the US flag will be used as a symbol of national pride and not for claiming territory.

But can anyone ever own land on the Moon. According to the Moon Treaty, molded after the Antarctic Treaty, was set up in 1979 and states that any celestial body in space is under international jurisdiction and can not be under the sovereignty of any nation. The problem with the Moon Treaty is that it is not ratified by any nation that launches its own objects into space and is only ratified by 15 states (probably nations that are jealous of not having a space program). However the Outer Space Treaty has gotten a lot more support and recognition. The Outer Space Treaty was set up in 1967 and has been ratified by 102 states, which include all the major space faring countries, so naturally this treaty has more authority then the Moon treaty.

The Outer Space Treaty states that no nation can claim sovereignty on any celestial body, but any thing launched into space is under that nations jurisdiction and space is the "Common Heritage of Mankind". So if the US lunches a giant base that lands on the Moon, the US has full control of that base, but not the moon rock below it. 

The Outer Space Treaty is a great principals but has some flaws. First the treaty was made during a time of high tensions and fears of nuclear war. Some have pointed out that the treaty does not give enough incentive to nations and private parties to explore space. If no one can claim territory in space, then why even lunch things up there, there is no gain for the party. So dreams of having a colonies  in space may be harder to achieve. Another flaw it is kind of ridiculous to think that all of space is to be governed under this treaty. We have no idea what is out there. There could be some other intelligent life form that has space capabilities and would they follow are authority over space? No. 

It could be possible that as Space programs get more ambitious, such as bases on the moon or even on Mars, that a nations would start denouncing the treaty and a new one would have to be formed. The treaty is not bad, because it promotes unity between the space faring nations.

More on the Moon Treaty and the Outer Space Treaty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Treaty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law

http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/outerspt.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbgz4yY-xX0

http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/moon.html

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/960/1