At this Thanksgiving time of year we consider the important things in life. Family, health, wealth, security, charity, nature. With Covid-19 throwing up another threatening variant, it is quite hard to look past the first 3 on the list. But the planet does need us to act decisively and swiftly in order to preserve a sustainable natural environment. Lets hope that we can.
Peace on Earth is always high on our personal lists, if not at governmental level. Space weapons are now becoming a big thing and something to be very wary of. The UN is getting very worried about an arms race in space.
See this useful article from a few days ago:
This is what we have been banging on about for 12 years. We need vibrant space commerce in a secure, peaceful environment. The Outer Space Treaty (OST) needs enhancement (a top up law/treaty) to help make this so.
Our Project is not just about providing our family descendents with ownership rights to land on Mars .. it is to raise awareness about the vulnerable state of the OST and the need to re-inforce it before space weaponization becomes an overwhelming danger.
So, what have we been doing? well, our membership numbers have recently passed the 200,000 mark. Thank you to all who have “Joined The Martians.” We are aiming for one million members within 12-24 months.
Currently Mars is not targetable by our powerful lasers … it creeps back into the northern hemisphere early morning skies in Dec/Jan. It is next at opposition (and closest approach) in early December 2022.
There was an interesting article published in the UK newspaper (The Express) in early Autumn. It was a great opportunity for the worlds top lawyers to discuss the merits of our Mars land claim. Unfortunately the journalist did not completely understand the initial brief. He truly thought we were claiming legal ownership of land on Mars… we absolutely do not claim this. We claim defacto-factual possession (ownership is currently not possible in space law). Such possession is the usual route (on Earth) towards ownership of newly claimed land. Should the laws of space evolve towards tolerance of property rights (which most experts think it will in future… maybe 50-150 years away) then we (or our family descendents) sit FIRST IN LINE for consideration of our claim.
Professor von Der Dunk (probably the world’s most prominent space lawyer) agrees that our actions are legal and could amount to de-facto possession of land on Mars (he stated this in his published paper). He also said that if/when the space laws changed to allow property rights, our claim would legally/morally be first in line for consideration. Professor von der Dunk’s published report on our claim is here:
https://themartians.org/legal/
Not all of the other top lawyers agree… but the interview in the Express was confused by the fact that the reporter asked about our “ownership claim” – which is not what our claim is. These lawyers have a much more nuanced opinion about ‘factual possession.’ It was nice to see that Professor Blount (another world leading American legal expert) supported our ethical goals.
The interesting but confused article is here:
As you may know, we did try to compel the UK government to present our claim to the relevent UN committee (COPUOS). They resisted us in the UK High Courts (High Court and Court of Appeal)…. so we took it to the European Court of Human Rights. As expected, our application (25211/21) was found to be inadmissible. We are very pleased that we have done all this without costing taxpayers any funds (we funded our own costs and the courts/governments costs too). This display of strength has been great for our credibility although we knew we would never be able to compel a national government to do all that we wanted!
So we move on … we want thousands more to join us, The Martians, over the festive period … we want our new members to spread the word … become influencers for our cause.
JOIN THE MARTIANS!