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Q . Are we in danger of experiencing a war for space ? A . The value of space resources is potentially quite great , but for now uncertainty about their value remains high . Coupled with the substantial technical difficulty and exorbitant price of spaceflight , the uncertain payoff means that only the most highly capable and wellfunded space programs can attempt to exploit space resources at present . Once resource values become more certain , however , the competition among both commercial and public space agencies will be fierce .
Q . Who owns space and these valuable resources ? A . The short answer is that it ’ s not clear . The UN ’ s 1967 Outer Space Treaty , signed by the US , UK , and Soviet Union , declared outer space as “ the province of all mankind … not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty , by means of use or occupation ”. The 1979 Moon Agreement supplements the Outer Space Treaty and calls for establishing “ an international regime ” to govern the exploitation of resources on the Moon and elsewhere beyond Earth . The Moon Agreement , however , was not signed by any major spacefaring ( at the time ) country . Together with the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 , which unilaterally grants US companies greater freedom to collect and keep nonliving materials from space , international consensus on the ownership of space resources appears unlikely . The most likely answer , given the value at stake , is simply whoever gets there first . miningglobal . com 73