Eternal light, up for grabs
The Outer Space Treaty bars any nation — and by extension, corporation — from owning property on a celestial body, but a loophole in the pact may amount to the same thing, warns a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) researcher. Martin Elvis, a senior astrophysicist at the CfA, says that provisions in the treaty allow nations to exploit resources, including through establishing research stations, and bar others from disrupting such endeavors. In some cases, this could amount to de facto ownership, Elvis said. As China and Japan plan moon landings, and corporate leaders eye their own space ventures, the loophole has gained in importance. Elvis spoke with the Gazette about his recent paper on the issue, co-authored with Tony Milligan of King’s College London and Alanna Krolikowski, a former Fairbank Center fellow now at Georg-August University Göttingen, and published in the journal Space Policy. A realistic scenario, he and his fellow...