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Comment by bstpierre | Hacker News Reader

In other news, a one-way trip to Mars only costs $50k. If you don't make it, you can sue for a refund, but you have to sue in Martian courts, which won't be set up for a few more decades.

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Is mars established as a credible planet/nation zone, or does it count as space (international)? Its an interesting perspective that the "zone" of mars could be a place of legal jurisdiction. But it seems that space is a free for all "zone", so maybe your lawsuit would be void?

According to the 1967 U.N. Outer Space Treaty, "outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means. However, the State that launches a space object retains jurisdiction and control over that object. The State is also liable for damages caused by their space object and must avoid contaminating space and celestial bodies." (from Wikipedia)

So any crimes on Mars would probably fall under the jurisdiction of the country who launched the mission. Enforcement on the other hand might be tricky.

Interesting. I would imagine because of the vast majority of things that can come into contact with the vessel (ranging from a toothpick to an asteroid) could cause any amount of damage and there would be no way to retrieve the vessel for evidence.

Thanks for the clarification on the subject.

I believe warpspeed meant damages caused to the celestial body BY the vessel, not vice versa. Basically they don't want you littering and damaging whatever planet/moon/etc. you decide to visit.

Hmm. Perhaps if the crime were committed in "that object" that was was launched. But what if it's outside that object, on the surface? Or within an object that was constructed on the surface?

Laws and treaties are just words on paper. They can be changed. They can be ignored. They have in the past and it's reasonable to assume they will continue to be in the future. So, I wouldn't rule out having some existing nation declare sovereignty over some part of Mars or an asteroid. They will give whatever excuse they need to justify it. Businesses would have powerful private profit incentive to be able to claim rights to things, and to have the protection of a patron national government's military to back it up, like the US, China, etc. We can also expect silly unnecessary wars to be ginned up by propagandists working for those same private profit interests. History is littered with examples, and no reason to expect it won't happen again in the future.

> So, I wouldn't rule out having some existing nation declare sovereignty over some part of Mars or an asteroid.

Perhaps it will end up in a situation akin to Antarctica.

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