From the exercise I was wondering about the politics of space. This lead me to discovering the moon treaty. Basically it was this attempt at an international treaty to regulate what can be done to the moon and how. I'm not sure if I completely understood it but that's what I got from my reading of it. Also in 2020 president Trump refused to have the US sign the treaty because he views the moon as a "free enterprise". The main part of the treaty that people take issue with is the regulation of harvesting resources from the moon. The treaty says that if you want to take resources it needs to be approved by all the other countries. This a large reason why the treaty doesn't have many signatures, including that of the "big three" countries.
Oh wow, I hadn't really thought about the role of politics in space much. Its really interesting how we are already coming up with treaties for celestial objects, with just the moon to start. It makes me wonder how stuff like this might continue as we start to reach farther and farther into space. It seems like a situation that could easily turn the rich countries richer and leave poor countries in the dust...
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that our "big" countries were reluctant to sign because I bet they're all for monopolizing and conquering what they can, which is how they got so powerful. I think it's really sad that those basically in charge of the world cannot agree to such simple and fair terrain when it comes to space when they cannot even really regulate what's going on in their own countries in decent ways (for the most part, and in my opinion I have to say). Thanks for sharing!
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