The legal “ownership” of the moon & space

[SongGrainInvite]

Just been reading some of the threads about last night’s moon launch where a few people voiced concerns that the long term plan might be to use the moon to dump waste / build energy provision etc.

If that is the case I find myself wondering who legally owns the moon and who gets a say over what is done there?

Russia landed the first spacecraft there, so is it theirs? Or USA because of putting the first man there?

Is there a legal field that specifically relates to space dominion or does it fall under international law?

There’s an international treaty that no one can own land on the moon, but if you get there you can use the resources in the area you are. So it’s worth building on a good spot.

What does “use the resources” mean? How can it be protected? I’m guessing we will trash the joint just like we are doing to earth.

This field is called astropolitics!

I fear we will trash the moon as well as the earth.
I despair of all this, and talking about anyone 'owning' the moon highlights how ridiculous it is that human beings can supposedly 'own' parts of the earth to the extent of trashing it and decimating non-human life on it.

Given recent events my money is on Trump trying to claim the entire fucking galaxy as under USA jurisdiction with the intent of ‘invading’ other planets (as he is too thick to understand what it would need to sustain human life), killing off any native species and then telling the world he is the best.

At this point I genuinely believe the only reason he hasn’t done this yet is that the resources needed for the research alone are too much!

Although if the old gimp could be sent out into space, that could solve a lot of issues, what with his health, age and weight,

The moon has been sold off in one acre parcels as Christmas presents since the 90s. Trump and the rest of them can feck right off,

I met a young man recently who studied space law. Something I'd never considered before.

.Borrowed from another thread

There’s no life on the moon to fuck up. No atmosphere, no oceans, no climate to worry about that changes living conditions and drives species extinct.

Nobody owns the moon. International Law does have some rules to do with governance of space and the moon but it is fairly meaningless. Countries ignore International Law whenever it suits them as there is no authority to enforce it.

Shhhhhhhh. It’s very important we don’t give him any ideas..

In the past I’ve seen stars for sale for about £20 each, but the T&Cs said that this had novelty value only. If I remember rightly, the words were “it is not possible to assign ownership of a star”. I think you just got a metal gift box with a certificate and a map showing the location of “your” star. Maybe the moon sales were similar?

I was just thinking they should trick the fat bucket of shite onto a spaceship then just leave him on the moon on his own. Whoops!

At least let him take a few friends with him!

No, they were entirely serious sales of moon property. The people who bought them did so expecting to find gold there and make money out of them.

Jeez, this website used to attract educated and erudite people at one time. The whole internet did. Of course education and intelligence means nothing now.

There is no life on the moon.

Bloody hell, don't tell the Orange one or he'll be renaming it the Moon of America.

What a weird post.

It is not legal to sell parts of the moon. There's an international space treaty treaty that governs it. The people buying plots of moon have been duped.

The book "the future of geography" Is very interesting on the matter.

It is not legal to sell parts of the moon.

Under which countries laws ?

I don't think he has any tbh. Not real ones. But we could send him up with a bunch of other assholes..hopefully ones he despises.

Yes I can imagine ….

”It’s a great moon. A big beautiful great moon. Some might say the best. I really like it. That other guy , I don’t like him. He doesn’t like the moon like us. He likes Mars. I might like Mars too. We need both for national security. Maybe the Iranians are there. We should blow up the moon then and you can all go and find your own gravitational pulls for your own oceans somehow you can’t rely on the US anymore. We have big beautiful lakes that don’t need tides.”

^ Thank you I needed that laugh, even at a shit situation!

Actually, I've done a bit more research. Over 100 countries signed the outer space treaty, which agreed that no country could own space. This did include the moon.

The moon agreement was not signed by many countries, notably including the USA and Russia. Saudi Arabia withdrew from it in 2024. So there is definitely a grey area.

There are also arguments that the treaty mainly refers to nations owning parts of space, not individuals. But these are flimsy because the outer space treaty does cover individuals, as nations are expected to monitor the actions of their inhabitants in space.

Ultimately all ownership derives from the barrel of a gun ...

This was my final university subject!

It’s actually owned by all of us and there is an entire body of law which applies to how it should be looked after.