Colonising Mars/International Space Law
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International Space Law is a set of documents which govern activities in space by the governments of the Earth. While nobody actually lives on Mars right now, to suggest there are no existing laws governing activities on Mars is not accurate either. Right now Mars is governed through various international treaties regarding who is responsible for the equipment that goes to Mars and what legal rights may be asserted by governments of many nations. Below are some of the major documents of space law and a brief overview of each document:
- Outer Space Treaty - Basic governance of extra-terrestrial bodies and relinquishment of soverignty claims by Earth governments.
- Moon Treaty - Follow up treaty to Outer Space Treaty, but has not been ratified by any major spacefaring nation except for France.
- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - Prohibition of nuclear weapons in space and legal consequences of nuclear detonation in space. Also affects technologies like the Orion project and nuclear rockets.
- Montevideo Convention - declaring requirements to be recognized as a "state" by the UN and other nations.
- The Antarctic Treaty - The original international treaty for new territories post WWII, and the basis for much of the current space law even if it doesn't explicitly deal with celestial bodies.
