Regarding the legal part, laws will change or be ignored to reflect the realities of power. I think laws are a way to clarify the boundaries for all parties to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts.

Would it be cheaper to build a fusion power plant on the moon and use lasers to transfer the energy back to Earth or would it be cheaper to send the helium isotope back to Earth?

I just don't see the ROI mining the moon. The cost just to get there far out ways the returns. I know it sounds capitalist but it's just the honest truth. No country on earth will spend the money for virtually noting in return. I myself would love to see moon and mars colonization but I doubt I will see it in my lifetime and I'm only 33.

I think you'd have a better shot of colonizing Mars, frankly, because the biggest obstacle to an organization/entity/state seeking to colonize in space would be the proximity and relations with other states. Mars is far away, which buys you time. It's a harder environment in many ways, and would require more planning, but once there you'd have a real advantage.

I know and understand the argument we should fix things here first, but if you think it is an intrinsic part of our nature to screw things up, it becomes a matter of species survival to make sure we fling colonies away from the mother ship before we do something stupid to ourselves.

And honestly, a frontier is what we need. It's sad there is no place anyone can realistically go anymore to escape the oppression of some state.

Originally posted by swampcricket
No country on earth will spend the money for virtually noting in return.

No private company will. But countries do often spend in such way. Governments are not at all restricted to spend only on financially profitable activities.

Originally posted by Maslo

Originally posted by swampcricket
No country on earth will spend the money for virtually noting in return.

No private company will. But countries do often spend in such way. Governments are not at all restricted to spend only on financially profitable activities.

edit on 11/2/12 by Maslo because: (no reason given)

I think the moon's real future is tourism. It probably cost around $10 billion per person for the Apollo program, but if the prices come down to $10 million or so then I'm sure there would be a market. Maybe we can keep a supply of picks and shovels to help the wealthy stay fit during their vacation.

Dont expect it to happen anytime soon, only when we have achieved a global government will we have the presence of mind to achieve something like colonizing other planets. Untill then its WAR and lots of it, or PEACE as war is now often reffered too.

Colonizing the moon could be a replay of colonizing the new world - who get's their first and establishes a sustainable colony and builds the largest population will end up controlling the moon. Think of how the European powers fought over the Americas - two or three powers may establish fledgeling colonies but as one grows the others may shrink (and not from confrontation necessarily, but from those powers inability to sustain an expensive colony). The one that grows will become the de facto 'owner' of the moon.

Then again, colonizing the moon would be so prohibitively expensive, I think any colony attempt will be a joint venture, just like the ISS, with each contributing nation sharing some portion of it. In that scenario, any plans or designs on the moon would be within the framework of that joint venture, perhaps we'll even have a "UN" committee that nations with lunar ambitions can state their case to, so that any issues regarding those plans can be worked out and agreed upon by all.

Colonizing the Moon, who's to stop you? or what will stop you?

Well the Moon is out of the Earth's realm anyway, so maybe Aliens that are not from planet Earth. What will stop you is even a better answer. Asteroids.