“This is one small step for man and a huge leap for mankind,” said Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969, for the first time in history stepping onto the surface of the moon. The legendary astronaut was mistaken - no huge leap for mankind happened. The Americans flew to the moon several times, after which they closed the program, the two remaining giant Saturn-5 rockets were displayed in museums and ... that’s all. Whether they can now repeat what they did half a century ago is unknown. But, most likely, it is unlikely. Lost competencies.
But US President Donald Trump does not believe this. And therefore, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the main blow of which fell precisely on the United States of America, he issues a decree that Americans have the right to develop the resources of the moon.
“Americans should have the right to conduct commercial research, production and use of resources in outer space in accordance with applicable law,” is written in this decree, and the most interesting thing here lies in two places. Firstly, in the word “commercial”. And secondly, in the phrase "in accordance with applicable law."
Because there is legislation applicable and not applicable. About the second, the decree says: "The United States does not recognize the Agreement on the Activities of States on the Moon and other celestial bodies."
Do you know what this agreement is? It was adopted by the UN in 1979. It was ratified by about a dozen countries, including such great space powers as Morocco, Uruguay, the Philippines and Peru. Neither the USSR nor the United States did not ratify this treaty, but did not even sign it. Because they signed completely different treaties.
For example, the Treaty on the Principles of Activities of States for the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies of 1967. According to which no state can claim to own a space body or part of it, and the sovereignty of states extends only to space objects launched directly by them.
Initially, this intergovernmental agreement was signed by the USA, USSR and Great Britain. To date, it has been ratified by hundreds of countries, and another 26 countries, although they have not ratified it, have signed it. That is, it is this agreement that today defines the international principles for the use of outer space. This agreement is the very “applicable law”.
And it is precisely in it that bans on the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in space, on the use of the moon to create military bases, weapons tests and all that are fixed.
That is, the decree of Donald Trump - attention - does not change in the current state of things ... nothing. The United States does not recognize the Agreement on the Activities of States on the Moon and other celestial bodies, but they never recognized it. As, however, are we. Trump claims that Americans should have the right to commercialize resources in space - but Americans have always had the right to do so, because no one has ever forbidden them to do so.
Even we. Because the 1967 Outer Space Treaty deals only with states and sovereignty, but not with commercial activity. The United States would never have signed an agreement prohibiting at least some kind of commercial activity. And for the USSR in 1967, the phrase "commercial activity" was an abstraction. And now, when everything has changed, we can do business on the Moon in the same way as the Americans. Because nobody forbade us to do this.
This raises a logical question: why? Why did Trump issue a decree, the content of which is not that legally insignificant, but does not contain short stories?
The hypotheses may be different, but the version about the classic “we cannot live without space” seems to be the most obvious. Trump is 73 years old. When Gagarin flew into space, Trump was 14. When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, he was 23. We know that Trump loves beautiful women, which means he loves everything beautiful, but nothing is more beautiful than the golden era of space exploration in the 1960s in the post-war history of mankind was not. And for sure young Donald Trump was impressed by all this, which he carried with him through his entire fascinating life.
And now, at one of the most difficult moments of his life (Trump is the president, and the Americans die during his presidency), this person wants to convey his sense of future to the nation. Cheer them up. And for this issue a completely meaningless decree about anything. Ridiculous? Sure.
They cannot live without space. Well, please.
Let's give them as much space as they can carry with them.
All the same, it will not decrease from space.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.