Asteroid Mining and the Outer Space Treaty

What do we get out of space?  What rules do countries use to ensure that everyone will “play fair” with the resources that might be out there? Will these rules truly ensure that countries will play fair in space, or will the same political dynamics that divide us here on Earth continue to plague us indefinitely out into the infinite universe? Join us and our special guest, Ken Tanaka, as we ponder these issues and more on today’s episode, “Asteroid Mining and the Outer Space Treaty.”

NOTE: this episode was originally published in February 2016.

Take a look at some of the sources we used to prepare for this discussion:

* The full text of the Outer Space Treaty

* Timeline of developments related to the Outer Space Treaty, Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)

* U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (2015)

Subscribe!

If you haven’t already, you should really subscribe to our show. It’s free and you’ll have our episodes delivered to you automatically every week. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, in your email, or just about any way possible outside of carrier pigeons (coming soon). In case you’re not sure how to subscribe, check out our instructions page. And if you’re really averse to podcasts, you can also subscribe to us on YouTube.