Introducing private property rights in space would incentivise private companies to mine it. This could protect the earth’s environment and provide limitless growth and prosperity. The sky is not the limit: there are no limits.

Earth has never run out of any raw material. Yet in today’s Climate Emergency hyperbole the assertion that we are plundering the earth and need to limit our consumption is deafening. 

The scarcity of raw materials argument was first stated in 1972 in the book ‘Limits of Growth’. It had been commissioned by the Club of Rome, a group of scientists, politicians and bureaucrats who calculated the speed at which the earth’s resources would run out at specific levels of consumption and population growth. Specific years were predicted at which specific raw materials would disappear. Not one did in the indicated years or since. 

Notwithstanding all the empirical evidence to the contrary, environmentalists the world over stick to the theory of the earth’s depletion and demand rationing by government.

The free market economy is the main reason why we have not run out of anything. In a market economy, when supply outstrips demand, the prices rise - thereby incentivising users to become more efficient, to find replacements, or to look for additional supplies.  Cars and white goods have become more efficient through inventions; finding additional fossil fuels; mining new deposits and so on.  

But we can do even better. It is undeniable that excessive mining destroys part of our environment. It is also not inconceivable (contrary to all current evidence) that at some point we may run out of one or the other raw material. Fortunately, there is an easy market solution: space mining.

Every known raw material is available in space . We simply need to go and get it. The added advantage is that few care about the environment on, say, the moon.Nobody lives there and, apart from ensuring that it continues to exists, who would care? In addition, when we mine on the moon we can mine less on the earth and thereby preserve our own habitat better.

How to achieve mining in space? As always the market provides the most efficient solution. Yet we need to make it profitable for private companies to do so. The problem is that there are currently no property rights in space. So any private enterprise there remains fraught with both insecurity and uncertainty. It is thus no surprise that nobody is willing to take the very high financial risk. 

Activity in space is governed by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (formally named the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies). 109 countries are signatories. It was mainly aimed at keeping space nuclear free and limits the use of space to peaceful purposes. Unfortunately it is woefully inadequate in providing property rights for potential entrepreneurs. The wording about lunar or asteroid mining is ambiguous at best. 

Under the Moon Treaty, no state is allowed to appropriate the moon or other celestial bodies by way of claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means. It is contested whether under this wording extraction of resources is prohibited, or not. The US has unilaterally introduced the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 to give guidelines to private companies. Other countries have replicated this. The controversy on legal claims for mining for profit remains. 

As long as there is legal uncertainty, private companies will not invest the billions needed to go mine the moon.

It is pretty straightforward what needs to be done: a new treaty establishing private property rights should  be negotiated. This could take the form of a multinational treaty; or could involve the United Nations.. There are precedents for both: The Moon Treaty is a multinational Treaty; whereas the customs, treaties, and agreements relating to the sea were united in the United Convention on the Law of the Sea. Antarctica is governed by a multinational treaty. 

The main aim for any country wanting to promote free market prosperity should be to establish property rights, probably beginning with the Moon. To reach United Nations consensus one could, for example, give every country in the world a part of the Moon (perhaps proportionally to its population/economy/land surface, or a combination of factors). Countries could then mine themselves,  sell the rights to private companies, or sell their plot to other countries. It could also give unexpected capital to undeveloped countries.

The main danger, especially if we go down the United Nations route, is the excessive length of negotiations, and the potential collectivist approach which many may promote. If it transpires that a market hostile outcome is likely, free market economies should go it alone and conclude a multinational treaty instead. There is also a danger that the environmental lobby will hi-jack the negotiations, as they successfully did with regards to Antarctica (a vast territory for the exclusive use of a handful of scientists and four million penguins). 

Private property rights in space could bring unheard of scientific advances and prosperity. The sky is not the limit: there are no limits.