Spaceport America

The world finally will have a spaceport.

I'll discuss in future posts why I think it so important that humans develop extra-planetary colonies. For now, let's just say I think it should be one of the highest priorities for the world over the next hundred years.

The details are somewhat more complicated than that assertion makes it sound. This spaceport project is an important step, allowing commercial ventures to make progress in an area thoroughly dominated by government. While government ventures are going to be integral to any colonization program--I find it pretty unlikely that governments are going to allow the monopolization of a planet--private corporations have stronger and more consistent incentives to promote space travel.

The real problem in the near-term is how property rights should be allocated in space--and by whom. As in Antarctica, there isn't yet an "owner" of space, and therefore it's a nontrivial problem to distribute or acquire rights. An international organization set up to manage such issues would have a great deal of power over the next major step for civilization, so the politics involved may be difficult to resolve in the near term.

The best we have so far is the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. You tell me: does that look robust or empowered enough to handle the vast and varied needs of our future in space?