Property Rights in Outer Space: Mining, Techno-Utopian Imaginaries, and the Privatisation of the Off-World Frontier [Hardcover]

Foreword

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1.???? Introduction

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2.???? NewSpace and neoliberalism

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3.???? Enclosing the space commons? Off-world property through the lens of political history

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4.???? On mineral sovereignty: state-corporate appropriation and the power of mining capital

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5.???? Making and re-making the space constitution

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6.???? Privateering the cosmic frontier: empire, myth and the violence of property

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7.???? Techno-utopianism and post-limits environmentalism

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8.???? Epilogue

References

This book explores the role of private mining rights in the utopian imaginary of space colonisation. It presents a transdisciplinary account and interrogates the new and evolving legislative frameworks that govern access to the mineral resources of space.

This book explores the role of private mining rights in the utopian imaginary of space colonisation. It presents a transdisciplinary account of the new and evolving legislative frameworks that have been established in anticipation of commercial exploitation of the mineral resources of the off-world frontier. Written in an engaging style, the book investigates a novel case study in the history of capitalism and 'the commons': the emergence of a nascent space mining industry, undergirded by a contentious legislative framework. In 2015, the US passed laws that would recognise the claims of US corporations to own and sell space resources. This unilateral act of pre-emptive law-making would appear to contravene the terms of the UN Outer Space Treaty (1967), which declared that the exploration and use of outer space should be for the benefit of all mankind and not subject to national appropriationlS0