> And land sale? The Outer Space Treaty [1] prohibits governments from claiming ownership of planets, so where would the authority to sell land on Mars come from?
Possession is 11 tenths of the law.
The Treaty of Tordesillas gave the modern USA to Spain. How'd that go?
Thats the problem that the OST tries to address. If more than one party claims possession of a territory (say Mars) then they can either settle things legally or with gunboats (err.. space battle cruisers). Given the absence of an off-Earth legal system to adjudicate, and with no compelling need to create one then or now, conflict would therefore be a likely outcome. So the OST just tries to defer the problem for a while. At some point, extraterrestrial territorial claims will need to be settled though.
Possession is 11 tenths of the law.
The Treaty of Tordesillas gave the modern USA to Spain. How'd that go?