terratogen wrote:
Now that space programs are popping up all over, I wonder how property battles are going to happen on the moon.

There are some international treaties on that, but they've always struck me as naive. There is some guy offering deeds but his customers also strike me as naive. Right now the US is the only country that has made it to the moon, so they are the defacto owners of it, but if they claimed some sort of exclusive right they would loose important international support for NASA. Eventually other countries will get there. No one will stop them. No one will prevent the US from selling energy mined there. No one will prevent other countries from doing the same. Then, eventually, probably many years from now, an actual conflict will arise over land access. It will be negotiated. Its possible for military conflict to break out over ownership of the moon, but right now the moon is not valuable enough to imagine why such a conflict would take place. Frankly, the moon will go to the people who actually get there and actually do stuff with it.

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