Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: NASA

Earth’s cold moon looms as hot property given its prospect of becoming feedstock for humans to not only survive but thrive on that desolate lunar landscape.

And with that promise, there’s also an upsurge of legal issues regarding tapping the Moon’s assets, along with property rights and first-come, first-served dibs on digging out those resources.

Credit: Space Adventures

All this is 21^st century, front-and-center discussion, but add to the dialog decades old questions of who can lay claim to space and, perhaps more pressingly, who owns the moon?

That question was tackled in an October 18 video conversation sponsored by the New York-based Explorers Club.

Go to my new Space.com story – “Who owns the moon? One man’s lunar claim – It’s only slightly tongue in cheek” at:

https://www.space.com/moon-property-rights-lunokhod-2-richard-garriott