It further said that the extraction and management of the moon’s natural resources would have to happen under the supervision of a space watchdog. A new agreement, the Moon Treaty, was proposed in 1979, which barred private ownership of land on the moon. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty was deemed inadequate to regulate such conflicts. Others opined that property rights and sovereignty were distinct and unrelated to geographical boundaries. Some argued that property rights were recognized only on tracts of land that were within the boundaries of a country’s dominion. Legal scholars were split over whether there was anything preventing the world’s wealthy from casting a fanciful eye at extraterrestrial real estate. Private property rights pertaining to lunar land for personal and corporate use was excluded from the 1967 treaty. But the document did not account for animal spirits being unleashed on the moon. Article II of the treaty stated that "Outer Space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means." These precautions ruled out national appropriation, and the establishment of military outposts on the moon. However, the colonization of the moon was preempted by the 1967 treaty, albeit temporarily. The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union would outlast their lunar fetish. But two years before Neil Armstrong stabbed the face of the moon with a flagpole and deposited the star spangled banner on terra incognita, 62 countries had ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty over fears that the space race would trigger World War III. The race was won, and the bragging rights, settled. On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the moon with three American astronauts on board. Researchers reckoned that the rocky surface of the moon held considerable reserves of valuable minerals, which could find application in many industries back home. However, the space race was not shorn of commercial considerations. It was held that victory would establish the primacy of one of the two different economic models which the rivals had adopted after World War II – communism and capitalism. The United States and the Soviet Union wanted to outdo each other in a race to the moon. But if countries were to set up colonies on the moon, will their lunar settlers stake claim to its natural resources, like what Columbus did for the Spanish crown?Īt the height of the Cold War, the moon had become the newest frontier in a neocolonial battle for outer space. United States, Russia (formerly the Soviet Union), Japan, India, and China have all previously sent missions to earth’s planet-sized satellite. While India is not the first country to send an unmanned spacecraft beyond the earth’s gravitational field, it will add to the growing list of countries that possess the knowhow to make a successful moonshot. On August 20, India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft entered the lunar orbit, one step closer to its scheduled landing on the moon’s South Pole on September 7. Moreover, recent unmanned missions to the moon have found large reserves of frozen ice, presenting a potential solution to water scarcity in many parts of the globe. These include elements with electromagnetic properties, which are typically found in the earth’s crust. Scientists believe that the moon is home to rare earth elements which find use in many modern technologies. The lunar surface presents a fertile ground for future settlers, but more importantly, it could also hold the answer to the world’s energy problems. However, with space travel fast becoming a reality, the new Great Game could be played out in outer space. The moon has been in plain sight since time immemorial, but for most, it remains a speck of white in the night sky. More recently, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, a parcel of land whose custody it had ceded to the latter after the unceremonious breakup of the erstwhile Soviet Union. Germany invaded Poland in 1939, marking the beginning of a prolonged war that was played out in a theatre stretching from Europe to Asia. The history of modern civilization is riddled with wars – fought mainly for territorial expansion.
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