Legal Ramifications

Ed Minchau wrote:

> Any space settlement that is 98% self-sufficient is far more self-
> sufficient than any nation on earth. The legal claim to nationhood
> of such a settlement would be very strong, particularly if
> established by private citizens (freemen) rather than governments.
> Precendent has already been set, in the Principality of Sealand:
>
> http://www.sealandgov.com/

Sealand is well withing British national waters. One question: if a bunch of
local toughs get guns and a boat and go out to take over sealand for grins,
will England protect them or are they on their own? Not such an issue in
space (launch vehicles are harder to get than boats).

>
> :) ed
>

Al Globus
aglobus@..., (650) 604-4404
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html

The dinosaurs weren't spacefaring. We are. I don't think that's an accident.
Maybe we are life's taxi to the stars.

I think we should:

1. Devote half of NASA's budget ($7 billion) to reaching NASA's 2020 goal of
reducing launch costs to Low-Earth-Orbit to $220/kg with a 0.01% failure
rate.
This should enable space tourism. The resulting orbital hotels will need to
develop efficient orbital life support and other necessary technologies.

2. Build orbital space colonies. The materials in the largest asteroid are
sufficient for orbital colonies with a combined surface area about 500 times
greater than Earth's. Eros alone could make over ten thousand space colonies,

each with about about 10 square kilometers of 1g living area.

3. After a few generations of orbital living, people won't need their colony
to be near Sol. Then small groups of colonies with populations in the
tens-of-thousands can set out on multi-decade journeys to nearby stars.

Except the launch goals, none of this is even a little bit official.