Civilian colonization of the Moon in planning stages

It seems kind of hard to believe, but apparently some private researchers and space corporations are teaming up to colonize the moon.

The press release for Synergy Moon does not go into all the legal barriers such a project will have to overcome. One cannot simply go out and lay claim to the Moon. International treaty law has extended some reservations to Luna similar to those covering Antarctica.

Permanent colonization and nationalistic claims are forbidden, believe it or not. So clearly the people behind this forward-looking project either believe they will be able to resolve the legal complications or else they are not yet aware that you cannot simply start building houses on the Moon.

I did write about a similar topic a few years ago when I proposed how to steal the planet Venus. The international treaty governing our use of the Moon and "other celestial bodies" stipulates that while the U.S. government cannot lay claim to the Moon it can grant you or me permission to go forth and colonize.

What's the difference? Well, legally, the U.S. cannot go to war with other nations over the Moon -- this country has no right to lay claim to the Moon. But we can still go to war with other nations in order to protect our citizens who may be colonizing the Moon.

Moon colonies are still the stuff of science fiction but the fact that anyone is seriously proposing to establish a permanent colony on the Moon raises some interesting issues. International law has been impacted by a small case in the United Kingdom in which the UK courts sided with a family that claimed sovereignty over an abandoned ship -- arguing that the United Kingdom had committed "dereliction of sovereignty".

In other words, the United Kingdom neglected to look after territory over which it originally had sovereign rights -- thus freeing up that territory to claim by any other source. While there probably won't be any intentional dereliction of sovereignty claims made for the Moon, as soon as people have the ability to launch their own space missions they will begin carving up the Solar System in an interplanetary land grab the likes of which will never be seen again.

Things could become very interesting over the next 20 years.

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