Congress Seeks To Privatize Space With ‘Off-Planet’ Mining Bill

Extraterrestrial ‘Finders Keepers’ law allows US citizens and companies to legally claim ‘abiotic’ natural resources including water and minerals.

Deirdre Fulton
By Deirdre Fulton
Asteroid Ida and its moon. (Photo: NASA APPEL/flickr/cc)

In a bipartisan bid to encourage commercial exploitation of outer space, the U.S. Senate this week unanimously passed the Space Act of 2015, which grants U.S. citizens or corporations the right to legally claim non-living natural resources—including water and minerals—mined in the final frontier. The legislation—described by IGN's Jenna Pitcher

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China Takes Off Into The 21st-Century Space Race

The first space race pitted the U.S. vs. the Soviet Union, but now a whole new competition has begun, and it will be a lot more interesting than the first.

Jeffrey Cavanaugh
By Jeffrey Cavanaugh

This past Saturday a remarkable thing happened. A probe the size of a small car that was launched from China landed on the moon and disgorged onto its surface a rover weighing 260 pounds. The rover Yutu, whose name translates into Jade Rabbit, can carry a 44-pound payload, transmit video in real time, perform simple analyses of soil samples,

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