*The Wall Street Journal: Arctic Thaw Defrosts a Sea Treaty*

When we start landing on the Moon again, having found something worth
digging up and selling to space travelers or shipping back to Earth,
there are sure to be discussions as to who has the right to dig, right
here, where I am standing.

Something not so far away is what is under the ocean, like gas, oil, and
other hard to find minerals.
Who has the right to drill here, right where my ship is anchored?
- LRK -

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*The Wall Street Journal: Arctic Thaw Defrosts a Sea Treaty*

By NICK TIMIRAOS
November 3, 2007

The Senate moved closer to ratifying a sweeping international treaty
that governs every aspect of maritime law, from ocean shipping to
deep-sea mining. A 17-4 panel vote sent the Law of the Sea Treaty to the
full Senate, where it must win a two-thirds vote for ratification.

The treaty enjoys an odd mix of support from the Bush administration,
top diplomats and military leaders, the oil industry and
environmentalists. But it is opposed by conservatives who worry it would
undermine U.S. sovereignty, and Senate critics repeatedly have blocked
the 25-year-old treaty, to which 155 nations have signed on.
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Who gets the taxes and fees involved in setting up and running an
International governing body that says what you can and cannot do on the
ocean floor?
Who will get the taxes and fees involved in setting up and running an
International governing body that will determine how your Lunar wealth
will be distributed?
Just a thought.

Look up, look down, look around, now where did I put that purse full of
gold, titanium, He3, gas, oil?
Must get back to patching up my fish net, drag gear, under water
submersible, and space tug.

How much did you say I had to pay that International Space Law Lawyer?


Soooo, many things to look up at, or on the sea floor below.
- LRK -

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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TOPIC: *Law of the Sea Treaty* (*LOST*)
http://www.eagleforum.org/topics/LOST/
Collection of articles and news items on Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST).
www.eagleforum.org/topics/LOST/
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The world government *Law of the Sea treaty*: it's baaaaack!
<http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/vernon/070514>
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/vernon/070514
Wes Vernon
May 14, 2007
Those who scheme night and day to curb America's sovereignty never �
never ever ever � give up.
Possessed with something akin to the patience of the Asian mind, they
brush off defeat as if it were some annoying flyspeck, and then redouble
their efforts.
Snip

United Nations Convention on the *Law of the Sea* - Wikipedia, the *...*
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea

The United Nations Convention on *Law of the Sea* (UNCLOS), also called
the *Law of* *the Sea* Convention and the *Law of the Sea Treaty* ( or
*LOST* by its critics), *...*
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_*Law*_of_the_*Sea*
- 68k

Snip

http://www.nss.org/legislative/NSS-LoST-WhitePaper.pdf
Rejecting the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST)
Abstract
The United States Senate must reject the United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS or Law of the Sea Treaty�LOST) because it
places constraints on commercial development of untapped resources in
unclaimed parts of the Earth's oceans. Ratification would set a bad
precedent for the future development and settlement of outer space.
While the National Space Society (NSS) has little quarrel with most
of LOST, Part XI establishes an international regime of approval,
oversight, technology transfer, and taxation that interferes with
private enterprise to an unprecedented and unnecessary degree.
Because LOST is an all-or-nothing treaty, NSS urges the Senate
and the President to renegotiate LOST or to continue complying with
all of its provisions except Part XI. This paper details how
'common heritage' treaties like LOST and the Moon Treaty do not
just discourage, but they actually inhibit, development of resources
from the unexplored reaches of our world and solar system. These
treaties prevent space development in two ways. First, by stating that
resources in unexplored places are "the common heritage of all mankind,"
they ensure that no one person will attempt to develop them privately.
Second, resources necessary to the future health of our civilization
will be subject to, as well as confiscated and redistributed by the UN,
an organization with a long history of opposing the United States. The
very future of our civilization will depend upon the resources and
technologies gained by exploring new worlds. We should not restrict
that future through short-sighted decisions today. Accepting the UN's
mandate on future resource development will mean a dimmer future for all-not
just the U.S. Free enterprise must be allowed to continue to expand, on
this world and others for the sake of our civilization.
Snip
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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
*Spacewalkers Complete Array Repair, Deployment*

Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock successfully
repaired a torn solar array today during STS-120�s fourth spacewalk. The
7-hour, 19-minute excursion wrapped up at 1:22 p.m. EDT.

Shortly after the spacewalk began, Parazynski rode the station�s robotic
arm up to the damaged area of the array. He was secured in a foot
restraint on the end of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, or OBSS � the
extension to the shuttle robot arm used for inspection of the orbiter�s
thermal protection system.

After reaching the area of the damage, Parazynski went to work
installing the cufflinks that were built by the crew. Once the five
cufflinks were in place, the crew inside then deployed the array half a
bay at a time until the array was fully deployed.

Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli coordinated today�s spacewalk activities.
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Hi Larry

Here is an interesting piece by Christopher Riley, co-producer &
assistant director of In the Shadow of the Moon. This statement caught
my eye "We are now looking for footage to accompany interviews we are
conducting with some of the 400,000 engineers and scientists who worked
on Apollo. The resulting series for the Discovery Science Channel will
air next summer - bringing a fresh insite (sic) into just how hard it
was to go to the Moon. Something we will perhaps never fully grasp until
we attempt to do it again."

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/10/caught_on_film.html

best wishes

Ross

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Hi Larry

I thought this article on "Plundering the Moon" by Andrew Smith (author
of Moondust) would be of interest. The comments section on the original
page covers a range of reader's opinions - some of them good and some of
them (in my view) unbelievably daft!

best wishes

Ross

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2200256,00.html

*Plundering the moon*

The new space race isn't focused on science or discovery, but is about
exploiting lunar minerals

*Andrew Smith*
*Saturday October 27, 2007*

*Guardian*

Snip
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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