Taking Up Space

This is now old news, and this blog post has been rotting in my drafts for a few weeks. However, I was beyond intrigued when I first saw the post about the space resort on Instagram. Many questions came to mind: Who owns the real estate of space? Will this spawn a space race to build the largest space resort? Will space hotel guests be able to venture outside? Seems like a far travel and expensive excursion to stay inside. According to one source, the company is already taking reservations — it’ll cost a casual $5 million for a three-and-a-half-day stay.

It is obvious I do not have much knowledge of space, or space engineering. I decided to look up “what are the laws of space?”

Laws of Space- spacefoundation.org

• Space activities are for the benefit of all nations, and any country is free to explore orbit and beyond.
• There is no claim for sovereignty in space; no nation can “own” space, the Moon or any other body.
• Weapons of mass destruction are forbidden in orbit and beyond, and the Moon, the planets, and other celestial bodies can only be used for peaceful purposes.
• Any astronaut from any nation is an “envoy of mankind,” and signatory states must provide all possible help to astronauts when needed, including emergency landing in a foreign country or at sea.
• Signatory states are each responsible for their space activities, including private commercial endeavors, and must provide authorization and continuing supervision.
• Nations are responsible for damage caused by their space objects and must avoid contaminating space and celestial bodies.

More information on https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties.html

With the information above… how will these laws begin to change once space businesses will be open to public access? I guess no one owns Earth, but the land and seas in it are owned by nations and individuals. I fear that similar things that happened on Earth will manifest in space: war, pollution, real estate/land ownership, evictions, and avoidable vehicle crashes.

So, who wants to go? What is the appeal besides curiosity or experiencing weightlessness?

This is a blog with lots of questions, lacking answers that I do not have time to research because my baby is crying right now and as I said before this blog took me weeks to publish and all I can focus on at the moment is what is happening on Earth and how we can manage to build a space hotel but not provide universal healthcare. I could probably think of 5 million things I could do with $5 million dollars besides visit space for 3.5 days.

Opinions, literature, and answers on the subject are welcome.