The flags of the two countries fluttered not in any breeze, but on iron wire, on the desolate and eerily motionless surface of the moon. One is the Stars and Stripes of the United States; the other Chinese crimson. But if you ask the officials of these countries, they will tell you that these flags do not claim any property. They are more like alien graffiti.
But if a flag is placed on it month does not count towards property claims, so what? And if you go down, can anyone really own the moon?
In October 1957, when the world’s first satellite, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1, crossed the sky, new possibilities opened up. Some of these possibilities were scientific, but others were legal. Over the next decade, the international community developed the project Space Treaty (opens in new tab) 1967 (OST) The world’s first legal document related to space exploration.
While the treaty is technically non-binding, it remains the most influential piece of space law. “It’s not a code of conduct,” he said Michelle Hanlon (opens in new tab), space law specialist at the University of Mississippi Law School. “It’s just a guideline and a principle.”
Related: What is “Man on the Moon” and how did it come about?
Despite the lack of implementation, the OST is clear about countries making land grabs in space. Article 2 of the treaty denies the possibility of claiming ownership of any part of space or any celestial body. “A state cannot declare independence on the moon,” Hanlon told Live Science.
But when it comes to building structures such as bases and habitats on lunar soil, Hanlon said, things get even murkier. “They’re kind of territorial in a different way, aren’t they?”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (opens in new tab) – According to Article 3 of the OST, space is governed – states that the individual has a fundamental right to property. This means, hypothetically, that anyone could build a house on the moon and make it their own. Several people, including Robert R. Coles, former director of the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium in New York City, have claimed ownership of parts of the moon and tried to sell the moon by its acres. In 1955, $1 apiece (opens in new tab)The New York Times reported.
However, Article 12 of the OST contains a provision to thwart such attempts. It states that any installation on another celestial body can be used by all parties. In other words, it should function as a public space, Hanlon said. The 1979 Moon Treaty helped bring Article 2 into line with Article 12 by providing that any commercial or individual activity in outer space would be considered part of its origin, not a sovereign state. But the United States, China, and Russia have failed to ratify the treaty, which they see as impotence. For missions like NASA Artemis program Space lawyers like Hanlon will have to do the hard work of reconciling Article 2 with Article 12 as the joint Chinese-Russian lunar base project gets underway.
More recently, NASA has attempted to fill a gap in space law Treaty of Artemis (opens in new tab), an international agreement designed to streamline future exploration. Based on the Outer Space Treaty, the treaty sets out a number of non-binding principles governing the operation of several celestial bodies, including the Moon. These include provisions to recognize certain areas of the moon as protected space heritage, such as the Russian Luna probe landing site and Neil Armstrong’s footprint.
Notably, however, the treaty allows companies to mine and exploit alien resources, something not every country is comfortable with. So far, 21 countries have signed the deal, but some major players, including Russia, are rejecting the clause, which they say gives American business interests an unfair advantage. Science reports (opens in new tab). Some scientists have pointed out that taking dirt from the moon seems as suspicious as owning land.
There are other ways to claim your property without actually claiming your property on the moon. For example, the use of scientific equipment, such as a rover or stationary seismometer, may become a real land claim if the research team prohibits others from getting too close to the equipment. All of this is sure to be a legal roadblock in the coming decades.
“In many ways, this is not an immediate issue,” Hanlon said. “And in many ways, yes.” But at the end of the day, he said, “we have to be really careful about how we act responsibly.”