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Who owns the Moon and the Oceans?

Who owns the Moon and the Oceans?. The area from 100-1000 miles above Earth has become very crowded. Over 400 military and civilian satellites in orbit This position is ideal for bouncing communications. Keppler Syndrome.

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Who owns the Moon and the Oceans?

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  1. Who owns the Moon and the Oceans? • The area from 100-1000 miles above Earth has become very crowded. • Over 400 military and civilian satellites in orbit • This position is ideal for bouncing communications

  2. Keppler Syndrome • One collision could cause enough shrapnel to endanger all other satellites. • “Domino effect”: shrapnel hits one satellite, causing more shrapnel, etc. • Could make space exploration impossible • Space Surveillance Network is already tracking 18,000 pieces of space junk

  3. Near-Miss • Last summer, the International Space Station was nearly hit by an unidentified piece of debris • Crew forced into escape capsule • Missed by only 1000 feet. • Travelling at over 17,000 mph

  4. Collision • Old Russian military satellite collided with a Iridium Communication satellite. • Now have to track 700 new pieces of debris fanning out in an 800 mile radius • Highlights the problem, but what is to be done about this crowding?

  5. Regulation • Ironically, the collision happened while the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was meeting. • States can voluntarily register their satellites, but not required to • No international oversight of all orbits • France has suggested a system • Private program SOCRATES downloads public info, but didn’t know about the collision.

  6. Discuss • Which of the 5 Themes does this fall under? • Why is this important?

  7. Who Owns the Moon? • Nobody. 1967 Treaty designates the moon as the “province of all mankind” and forbids military use • India, China and Japan have spacecraft orbiting the moon • U.S. will join them next year • Google Lunar X Prize: $30 million to first private team to send a robot to the moon and send data back

  8. Moon Treaty? • No laws, so look to the seas • Some say Lunar laws should be based off of laws governing international waters • Others say that it should be first come, first serve for property and resources • 1979 Moon Agreement forbids exploitation of resources by any one nation, but no one has signed it

  9. Going Beyond • Scientists want a permanent scientific outpost like the one in Antarctica • How will we ever get to Mars if we can’t set up on the Moon? • “Arrive, survive, and thrive”

  10. Discussion • Do the benefits outweigh the costs of using the moon? • For settlement? • For research? • For resources?

  11. Who Owns the Oceans? • Command of coastal areas has been important to governments. • 20thcentury - countries began to come together to discuss a standardization of maritime boundaries. • Ancient times through the 1950s- countries established the limits of their jurisdiction at sea on their own. • Most countries established a distance of 3 nautical miles. These territorial waters are considered part of a country, subject to all of the laws of that country.

  12. Expanding claims • 1930s -1950s, the world began to realize the value of mineral and oil resources under the oceans. • Individual countries began to expand their claims to the ocean for economic development. • In 1945, U.S. President Harry Truman claimed the entire continental shelf off the coast of the U.S. (which extends almost 200 nm off the Atlantic coast). • In 1952, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador claimed a zone 200 nm from their shores.

  13. UNCLOS • The international community realized that something needed to be done to standardize these borders. • A series of United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) began in 1958 • UNCLOS III Treaty (1973) specified that all coastal countries would have a 12 nm territorial sea and a 200 nm Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). • Each country would control the economic use and environmental quality of their EEZ.

  14. Problem areas • Countries closer than 24 nm apart draw a median line boundary between each other's territorial waters • One controversy over the EEZs has been to determine what constitutes enough of an island to have its own EEZ. • The UNCLOS definition is that an island must remain above the water line during high water and may not just be rocks, and must also be habitable for humans.

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