THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS FOR SELECTED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS IN LUNAR AND MARTIAN SETTLEMENTS

摘要

Ever since the launch of Sputnik-1, science fiction writers, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs have suggested various commercial applications for human settlements on the Moon and Mars, with their technological and commercial feasibility ranging from realisation in the near future or being no more than a vision of a time quite distant from the present. These activities include, but are not limited to, agriculture, housing, exploitation of mineral resources and power generation. Of the various legal enablers and disablers of such activities, the need for private property rights would be of primary importance to such commercial applications on celestial bodies.