Who Owns the Moon?
Within the next ten years, the U. S., China, Israel, and a crowd of private companies plan to set up camp on the moon. So if and when they plant a flag, does that give them property rights?
A NASA working group hosted a discussion this week to ask: Who owns the moon? The answer, of course, is no use. The Outer Space Treaty, the international signed by more than 100 countries, states that the moon and other celestial bodies (天体) are the province of all mankind. No doubt that would annoy all of the people throughout the ages, like monks from the Middle Ages, who have tried to claim the moon was theirs.
But ownership is different from property rights. People who rent apartments, for example, don’t own where they live, but they still hold rights. So with all of the upcoming missions (派遣团) to visit the moon and beyond, space industry thought leaders are seriously asking themselves how to deal with a potential land rush.
“ This is a very relevant discussion right now. We’ve got this wave of new lunar missions from around the world,” said William Marshall, a scientist in the small-spacecraft office at NASA, but who spoke this week at an event hosted by NASA’s Co Lab, a collaborative(协力完成的) public-private working group. He was speaking from his personal interest and not on behalf of the agency.
To be sure, the United States aims to send astronauts back to the moon by as early as 2015, in a mission that would include a long-term settlement. China and Israel, among others, are also working on lunar projects. And for the first time, several private groups are building spacecraft to land on the moon in an attempt to win millions of dollars in the Google Lunar X Prize. Some participants say that they plan to gain some property rights in the mission.
小题1:In the passage the writer seems to be worrying that ________.
A．the US will live on the moon forever
B．the moon will not be able to hold all mankind
C．the potential land rush will become more and more frequent
D．no one can answer the question “ Who owns the moon?”小题2:“ The Google Lunar X Prize” aims to ________.
A．encourage private groups to land on the moon
B．help NASA host a discussion about land rush on the moon
C．help some developing countries to complete their lunar projects
D．reward some countries or private groups which haven’t stepped on the moon小题3:The underlined word “ that” in the first paragraph refers to ________.
A．the Outer Space Treaty
B．if and when they plant a flag
C．the NASA working group
D．monks from the Middle Ages小题4:What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
A．The U. S. astronauts will live on the moon for longer time.
B．Many countries and private groups plan to go to the moon.
C．Why some private groups wish to land on the moon.
D．It is easy to gain some property rights on the moon.小题5:We can infer from the passage that ________.
A．it’s a waste of time to work on the lunar project
B．“ The Outer Space Treaty” forbids private groups to land on the moon
C．all mankind has the right to land on the moon
D．whenever you come to the moon, you’ll get some property rights on it