LogFAQs > #948963192

8. This is an extremely important task that we've already been putting off for too long.

An extraterrestrial base is the first step towards extraplanetary colonization which, long term, is going to be critical for our species' survival. We are currently one extinction-level event away from being wiped-out, with everything we have ever built and discovered going up in smoke. We need a backup Earth and while we're a long ways away from having the technology to realistically have one, this is a good start.

Raddest_Chad posted...

Yeah. The last thing we need is someone else getting there and spouting off about how they looked at it first thousands of years ago and if anyone else puts a base there it's "meddling in their domestic affairs" or some BS.

It's abundantly apparent by the posts like this that few, if any people in this topic are up to speed on the current legal status of space.

There are several international treaties - to which every country with a space program (excepting North Korea, if you even count them as having a space program) are signatories - stipulating that no territory outside of the earth's atmosphere can be claimed by any government or organization, including both space and all celestial bodies. Everything outside of the atmosphere is, much like Antarctica, considered to be the collective property of humanity, to be held in trust for future generations.

And yes, that does mean that we've literally claimed the entire universe in the name of humanity already (and have done so since before anyone even set foot on another celestial body), because humans are nothing if not ridiculously self-important.

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