THis brings up an interesting question of jurisdiction. As national
jurisdictions were determined originally to extend 3 miles from shore,
as that was the furthest that a ground based cannon could shoot at that
time, and was later extended to 12 miles for similar reasons, and since
nobody currently has the ability to conduct an artillery barrage on a
lunar target, the UN Moon and Space treaties are basically
unenforceable. WHile you could argue that they would be enforcable on
anyone returning from the moon to an earth jurisdiction, this leads to
questions of extraterritorial enforcement that are currently being
debated in the world court with respect to US laws designed to go after
terrorists in overseas locations.
Additionally, since water and other cryogenically stored materials are
now being discovered at the lunar south pole, any lunar settlement would
have plenty of light elements available to last until a comet could be
diverted for a more lasting supply. Also, with the construction of
linear induction accelerators for putting lunar resources into orbit,
nobody on earth would be in a strategic position to tell anyone on the
moon what to do, as such devices would be the ultimate in artillery
weaponry in a position of tactical superiority over the entire earth.
-- TANSTAAFL!!!Michael Lorrey --------------------------------------------------------- President retroman@tpk.net Northstar Technologies Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com Inventor of the Lorrey Drive Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/ --------------------------------------------------------- Inventor, Webmaster, Ski Guide, Entrepreneur, Artist, Outdoorsman, Libertarian, Certified Genius.