Who Owns Space? | Answers With Joe

this video is brought to you by curiosity stream and nebula back in august i did a video on moon mining and how it's very possible that we might be doing that soon and what kind of resources we might get there and what we could do with it uh if you had a chance to check it out you should you should go watch it it's a banger but many of the comments in that video pointed toward a very important issue and that issue is that we as human beings suck since the very beginning we have taken this planet and put lines around it and then spent countless human lives defending those lines sometimes we kill each other to push that line a little bit further and make our slice of the pie a little bit bigger sometimes it's out of petty spite and politics but usually it's fought over resources of some kind oil clean water fertile land minerals gold if it's got value we will find a way to get it usually through massive amounts of human suffering so yeah now we're tiptoeing off this planet we're finding resources out there in space and it and it begs the question you know how are we going to draw those lines what comes next and maybe the most important question is history going to repeat itself [Music] all right so if we're going to be talking about space resources and lines let's just start with the line that divides earth from space it's a line you've heard a lot about recently with the blue origin and virgin galactic launch is the carmen line this is usually talked about as sort of a petty arbitrary thing like it's what determines whether or not you get astronaut wings on the pin when you go up there but in the terms of who owns space it's actually pretty consequential consequential but still arbitrary it's considered the point where our atmosphere ends and space begins and it lies at 100 kilometers above mean sea level but if i may well actually myself the earth's atmosphere actually extends way beyond that actually all the way out to the moon it's called the geocorona so yeah this is just an imaginary line it's considered the boundary between the disciplines of aeronautics and astronautics but it's also another kind of boundary at least it was supposed to be theodore von carmen who the line is named after said that the 100 kilometers up is the airspace above a country that's what that country owns but above that it's sort of akin to international waters it's like you always hear about how a plane has entered another country's airspace well here's where that airspace ends because there's no more air it's just space yeah space in the ocean are vastly different obviously but it's kind of helpful to think of it in that term that you know space or the area above the carmen line is basically international waters yeah following the rules set up in the 60s to the international space treaty basically satellites planets moons asteroids these are all considered common heritage uh they're neutral territory they belong to all of us which is a beautiful sentiment you know it's almost star trekian or star trek-ish i don't know how you're supposed to say it of course in star trek they also had the eugenics wars that took place in 1992 so the treaty also prevents the use of weapons or nukes in space which is being pushed quite a bit these days but the point of the aerospace treaty was if we are going to go to space we are going to go as one species there's not going to be a nationalist effort there and this is a rule we've always abided by except you know always but let's talk for a second about common heritage common heritage is the idea that there are some things that shouldn't belong to any particular country or nation or corporation they should belong to all the people of the world like the human genome for example the human genome belongs to all of us it doesn't belong to any country or nation or corporation doesn't mean some aren't trying looking at you 23andme and there are a lot of areas on planet earth that are considered common heritage including the international seabed under the international seabed international waters above and below an international airspace and this was the idea behind the outer space treaty that space could be added to that list as a common heritage but maybe because we've been learning a lot more about what resources exist out there in space this whole idea has been withering for quite some time now to that end many parties to the outer space treaty have been trying to alter it lately none more so than the us of a because everybody having something that's socialist so we passed the u.s commercial space launch competitiveness act or because everything has to be an acronym the spurring private aerospace competitiveness in entrepreneurship act you know if congress spent half as much time governing as they do trying to come up with clever acronyms for things we might actually have some kind of [Music] this act paid the way for companies like spacex and boeing to ferry crew and cargo to the international space station and eventually boeing might actually do it ooh bowern but part of this bill specifically addresses the use of space resources aiming to quote promote the right of united states citizens to engage in commercial exploration for and commercial recovery of space resources free from harmful interference so of course hyper-capitalist united states with our hyper-capitalist president is now breaking with international common heritage treaties oh no actually it was it was this hyper capitalist president yeah it was signed in 2015. now to be fair there was more to that quote from the bill in accordance with international obligations of the united states and subject to authorization and continuing supervision by the federal government so technically these private space companies should be operating under the auspices of the international agreement but some private space companies are working on this before the space act was even signed one of those corporations is moon express which has the simple mission of mining as much water on the moon as possible and selling it bob richards who owns moon express referred to water as the oil of the solar system and he's not wrong we talked about this in various videos but water can be used not just for drinking but also fuel and oxygen in the far future as we expand out into the solar system these resources are going to be worth vast amounts of revenue which is why in 1979 the international space treaty was augmented to include a provision specifically about moon resources in the agreement governing the activities of states on the moon and other celestial bodies set forth by the un office for outer space affairs it states this about moon resources quote inequitable sharing by all states parties and the benefits derived from those resources whereby the interests and needs of developing countries as well as the efforts of those countries which have contributed either directly or indirectly to the exploration of the moon shall be given special consideration now if you find it hard to believe that the united states would sign on to a treaty offering to share all the resources the moon when we were the only people that had gotten to the moon at the time that's because we didn't sign it we're not party to that treaty now one way to look at how we'll probably approach space resources is to make it sort of analogous to the fish industry like if you're a fishing vessel and you're flying your country's flag over your vessel then you are party to that country's laws but whatever fish you get you get to keep so space law is basically fish law with a touch of the homestead act of 1862 space fish so space resources are one thing um space weapons are something else altogether first of all space warfare or any squabbles about space resources those are still going to be taking place down here on earth not up there in space it's just too expensive to fight in space right now anyway we can barely get a gallon of water into space cheaply much less a moon tank who else wants to see a moon tank so i suppose it's possible that as we get deeper into space resources that the us and the rest of the world will get together and decide to you know work together for the goodness of all mankind instead of you know fighting each other over it that that would be nice or we could do our own thing just put lines in the regolith just like we did down here on earth which did not always work out that well looking at you all the wars ever but the trend currently is towards something that's probably even messier and that's private corporations exploiting space resources so now we're looking at the possibility of hyper mega corporations formed out of some kind of neo-manifest destiny expanse much because international law and this kind of thing is still kind of stuck back in the cold war space race there's really no legal framework for how to to regulate the exploitation of space resources by private companies as we head back to the moon and set our sights on mars and the asteroid belt we're also going to be building a legal infrastructure around all this there's going to be a lot of lawsuits flying around and if lawsuits are what determines the future of space i'd say blue origin has a leg up on their competition like seriously somebody asked me what field of law they should go into i would say space law it's it's going to get crazy by the way one of the top schools to go to if you want to learn air and space law is the international institute of air and space law in leiden the netherlands just saying so who owns space nobody for now and that's okay for now but as this major leap forward in space travel continues and as space resource technologies start getting proven out we're gonna have to have some pretty difficult discussions about who we're going to be over the next couple hundred years as we move off this planet are we one people one species or are we a collection of cultures and nations or are we just cogs in the wheels of a galactic hyper corporation tell me what you think in the comments but hey if we're going to explore and exploit the solar system you might want to know what's out there so a good place to start might be the series secrets of the solar system on curiosity stream this eight part series takes you on a tour through the solar system with each episode focusing on a different planet the asteroid belt the sun itself and yes even pluto you'll come out the other side with a better understanding of our little corner of the galaxy than you ever had before and if you should happen to become the head of an interplanetary resource mining corporation you'll know where to go you've got to be prepared for these things you know and this of course is just one of thousands of documentary series on curiosity stream from some of the best documentary filmmakers from around the world if you like entertaining and educational content this is the streaming service for you even better with your subscription to curiositystream you get free access to nebula the streaming service i'm a part of as well as many of your other favorite youtube channels where you can watch our videos ad free that means both pre-rolls and the sponsor messages like you're hearing right now and of course nebula is the only place where you can watch my six-part series mysteries of the human body which covers all the weird and surprising ways our bodies have kept us guessing over the years we cover everything from weird and rare diseases to common diseases we still can't cure famous human oddities and the question of why we age and die we wrapped up the series last month so it's all available to binge at your heart's desire and you dear viewer can get this bundle for 26 off the normal rate so that's like 14.79 14.79 for two services for a full year it's bonkers and if you don't do it you're crazy i hear it makes a good gift as well for the nerd in your life so if you're curious head over to curiositystream.com joe scott to get started big thanks to curiosity stream for supporting this video and a huge shout out to the patreon supporters and community members here on youtube who are just forming an awesome community being real cool and supportive and i get lots of great ideas from them can't thank you guys enough there's some new members here on youtube to shout out real quick we've got jw hydner fish sandwich i can go for a fish sandwich right now rob dragon greg zedison uh tom ray ty helton wade whale eddie tona kinsey reserva x2 tim wearley father morpheus matt dahl lilith esme scott radowsky richard cox and joelle thank you guys so much if you would like to join them get early access to videos access to exclusive live streams and get a little cool avatar by your name in the comments uh just hit the little join button down below please do like and share this video if you liked it and if this is your first time here this one might be up your alley because google seems to think so or you might look at any of these others that are being recommended by youtube do go watch them and um if you like them i recommend you subscribe because i'll come back with videos every monday alright thanks a lot for watching you guys go out there have an eye opening rest of the week stay safe and i'll see you next monday love you guys take care

Channel: Joe Scott

Views: 293,300

Keywords: answers with joe, joe scott

Id: VQlRPF760As

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 08 2021