Sunday, November 29, 2015

"It is Now Legal to Own an Asteroid in the U.S."

You know the first things they want to mine are those things with the highest price per ounce back on earth which ex-truffles and saffron probably means the so-called precious metals.
However, with all that gold and platinum coming back, you might want to bone up on Another Post On Glass, This Time With "The Alchemist's Fallacy" (And Professor Nordhaus).

The miners will probably also keep an eye peeled for Californium-252 at $27 million per gram, but finding any is a bit of a long shot, 8 grams known to date.

From Economic Policy Journal:
Professor Walter Block, who has recently completed (with Peter L. Nelson) a book on  private property ownership of water, Water Capitalism: The Case for Privatizing Oceans, Rivers, Lakes, and Aquifers and who is working on a book on capitalism and private property in space, may have something to say about the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R. 2262).

Christian Nordqvist reports:
Owning an asteroid is now legal in the Unites States, after President Barack Obama signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R. 2262) into law, effectively reversing decades of space law. Before the new law was signed, space had been largely treated as publicly owned, i.e. nobody could claim commercial ownership of anything in outer space.

Now, US citizens have the right to own the asteroid resources they obtain, which several companies, including Planetary Resources Inc., say will encourage the commercial exploration and utilization of resources from asteroids....MORE
We've had some posts on this subject:

The U.S. House Of Representatives Just Passed An Asteroid Mining Bill
Here Comes Another Asteroid Mining, 3D Printing, Robotic, Start-up
Asteroid Mining: "A Start-Up Sees a Gold Rush Among the Stars"
"Are Ross Perot Jr. and Google's Founders Launching a New Asteroid Mining Operation?"
 X Prize Founder Wants to Mine Asteroids
 Rocket Men: A unique gathering of 13 companies showcases a coming year of launches
"We Are About to Start Mining Hydrothermal Vents on the Ocean Floor" (now with added alchemist's fallacy" 
"Asteroid a MILE wide to hurtle past Earth in 48 HOURS - as experts warn of MASS EXTINCTION"
"The companies vying to turn asteroids into filling stations"

A compilation image of mining equipment in space