High Frontier Forums

http://www.planetaryresources.com/2015/11/planetary-resources-applauds-u-s-congress-in-recognizing-asteroid-resource-property-rights/

Quote:Redmond, Wash. – November 10, 2015 — Planetary Resources, Inc., the asteroid mining company, praises the members of Congress who promoted historic legislation (H.R. 2262) that recognizes the right of U.S. citizens to own asteroid resources they obtain as property and encourages the commercial exploration and recovery of resources from asteroids, free from harmful interference.

Yep, this is great news.  Or it will be, if it actually becomes law... according to the bill tracker, the Senate added an amendment, and has sent it back to the House.

The tracking site gives it only an 11% chance of being enacted, though I have no idea what that is based on.

Hey neat, it looks like H.R. 2262 has passed reconciliation in the House, and is now headed to the President to be signed into law.

That was surprisingly fast — I find the words "Good job, Congress!" forming on my lips for the first time in a long time!

Here is Deep Space Industries' take on it.

Here's another good article about it in Wired.

Curiously, the bill tracker still gives it an 11% chance of being enacted.  Clearly, the bill tracker's crystal ball is quite cloudy!  I don't want to jinx it, but I haven't heard anything to indicate that the President would veto it — looks like it's practically a done deal to me.

The cool thing about this legislation is that it boils down to: you still can't own property you find in space, but you can mine stuff you find in space, and own that. This would of course include owning any space colonies you build.

So, this sets up the incentives so that the most profitable thing to do would be to mine the asteroids, and convert them into space habitats... and to do this as quickly as possible (before somebody else beats you to it). That's good news for settling space!