Like international waters, space is a commons usable by all but owned by none; but, unlike any earthly commons, space borders every country on the planet, and actual or metaphorical fallout from an incident there could spoil days — or destroy lives — anywhere on Earth.
So, who watches the spacemen? And what laws or treaties exist to protect us all? The answers might surprise you.
History is so replete with property swindles that we still have jokes about them. The phrase, “if you believe that, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you” derives from a favorite dodge of turn-of-the-century confidence men like George C. Parker, who sold the Brooklyn Bridge multiple times — along with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty and Grant’s Tomb. Selling Florida swamp land, a favorite scam of the early 20th century, continues to this day.
Scan the internet, and you’ll quickly find a half-dozen companies ready to sell you your very own piece of space property, starting with the moon. In this article, I ask whether anyone can actually own our nearest neighbor, or if all these companies are exchanging for your green is a load of green cheese.
On Aug. 6, 2012, a new rover will touch down on Mars — bigger, badder and bristling with more gear than a spelunker convention. Although rocking the same suspension system and basic design, Curiosity, aka the “monster truck of science,” is so much heftier than its predecessors that NASA and JPL had to invent an entirely new way to land it: one part HALO jump, one part rocket-hovering sky crane. Its mission: investigate if the right conditions exist, or ever have, to support microbial life.
NASA is planning its most powerful rocket to date, a jack-of-all-trades vehicle intended to carry the American space program through a dizzying array of potential missions. Inheriting parts from the now-defunct space shuttle, its stillborn successor, Constellation, and the Saturn V workhorse that launched Americans to the moon, this modular monster is Senate-mandated to meet the requirements of any mission NASA dreams up, from near-Earth milk runs to massive undertakings like Mars exploration.
Can a single vehicle serve so many masters in so many ways, or will this phoenix turn out to be a turkey? Find out below – and then test your knowledge in the Big, Bad Space Launch System quiz.
How the Space Launch System Will Work
Blastoff! The Big, Bad Space Launch System Quiz