Problems for Mitt:
(1) How will Mitt fire Paul Allen, the 57th richest man in the world, Microsoft co-founder, sole investor in Burt Rutan’s Spaceship One which made the first private space flight?
(2) How will Mitt fire Sir Richard Branson, the 254th richest person in the world, founder of all Virgin Enterprises, one of which is Virgin Galactic which is turning the Burt Rutan Spaceship One into a paying passenger spaceship line.
Mitt lost the “moon colony” argument due to not being current with either technology (e.g. Spaceship One) or the history of settlement (e.g. “Northwest Ordinance of 1787″) or incentives (e.g. X-Prize).
Those exclaiming about the “1967 Outer Space Treaty” fail to understand that:
(a) a treaty can be withdrawn from (e.g. USA unilaterally withdrawing from “Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty” with USSR)
(b) Article XVI of the “1967 Outer Space Treaty” allows withdrawal from the treaty
Private individuals will settle space as they settled the North American continent. Not a dime of gov’t money need be spent; however, a legal framework, where property rights (Mitt might want to more aggressively defend such) can be established. Cause if Paul Allen or others want to spend their own money settling the moon, might they want some legal recognition of their property rights (e.g. possession is nine-tenths of the law)?
