Donald Trump ignited a scramble that is transforming space from shared frontier to private asset \u2013 raising questions about law, equity and ethics<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In 2015, a rare moment of US congressional unity passed the Space Act <\/a>\u2013 to mine asteroids as if they were\u00a0open seams of ore and harvest planets like unclaimed farmland. Quietly signed by President\u00a0Barack Obama, it now reads as a premature act of enclosure: staking titles in a realm we scarcely understand. Though some expressed concerns at the time, it was justified by the idea of inevitable progress. Such naivety evaporated with Donald Trump. Space had been humanity\u2019s last commons, shielded by a 1967 Outer Space treaty. Mr\u00a0Trump declared it dead in 2020, signing the Artemis\u00a0Accords and enlisting 43\u00a0allies, including the UK, in the legalisation of heaven\u2019s spoils. In March, Mr\u00a0Trump vowed to plant the stars and stripes on Mars<\/a> \u2013 and beyond. The age of celestial commons was brief, if it ever began.<\/p>\n A new report by the Common Wealth thinktank, titled Star Wars<\/a>, warns that a powerful coalition \u2013 composed of private corporations, billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos<\/a>, and \u201cneoliberal<\/a>\u201d thinktanks \u2013 is working to extend earthly ownership structures to space. The report\u2019s author, Durham University\u2019s Carla Ibled, calls it \u201cthe transfer of shared resources into the hands of a few\u201d. The 1967 treaty bans state exploitation\u00a0of space, but is vague on private claims \u2013\u00a0a\u00a0loophole now fuelling a tycoon-led scramble for the\u00a0stars. The aim is obvious: to act first, shape norms and dare others to object.<\/p>\n Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump ignited a scramble that is transforming space from shared frontier to private asset \u2013 raising questions about law, equity and ethics In 2015, a rare moment of US congressional unity passed the Space Act \u2013 to mine asteroids as if they were\u00a0open seams of ore and harvest planets like unclaimed farmland. Quietly signed … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}