Mars question?

Question

If a private organization were to somehow land on Mars and claim it as there own before a government agency such as NASA. Do they own sole ownership of the planet?

Answer 1

Well, I doubt a private consortium could pull something like that off, but the answer is no - whatever country the organization is based in would have signed the Space Treaty of 1968 - stipulating that all moons & planets can belong to no single nation.

Answer 2

I personally believe that before that could happen the super powers such as U.S.,Russia,Japan,China,France,Germany to name a few would or already have passed laws and have pacts with each other as to how a planet would be devided up amongst them, but as far as any one company or country being allowed to claim sole ownership of a planet , it will never happen ,the many governments of the earth will not allow this to happen without starting another major conflict

Answer 3

Only if they can hold onto it. The governments of this planet would never accept any claims placed on bodies other than Earth, because of the 1960's space treaty that claimed everything "in the name of mankind."

If a private group managed to get there, I imagine that they'd be left alone until it appeared that others were going to follow suit. Then "the war of the worlds" would begin as Earth governments fought to keep "their" portion of the pie.

Answer 4

In practice, a group can 'claim' anything. Whether they would get anybody to honor that claim is another story. And if two parties had competing claims, and the two parties had not signed any treaty (or decided to reneg on the treaty), then the issue would be settled the way territorial disputes have been settled through history: attempts at diplomacy, and if that fails, then war. (perhaps a war on Mars?)

Answer 5

Probably not, no country can claim ownership of Antarctica, I imagine there is international law to deny ownership of planets in our solar system.