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Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law

astronomy.com

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Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law

#33
post #6
post #3

Just reading the headline leads me to the immediate reaction: Who cares about a U.S. law outside of US jurisdiction? If the U.S. wants other countries to follow the same rules they need to make international treaties like the outer space treaty from 1967. That requires actual diplomacy of course.

> Who cares about a U.S. law outside of US jurisdiction? Alas, Julian Assange for one, as an Australian citizen, indicted for breaking a US law while not in the US. The recent UK court decision not to extradite him to the US nevertheless in no way disputes US standing nor jurisdiction, and he remains in custody while the US appeals. So, we're all living in America.

There's nothing unusual about this. Obviously you don't have to physically be in a country to commit a crime in that country.

If I'm a German citizen residing in France hacking UK hospitals, the UK very obviously would want brought to justice, which both France and Germany would happily agree to in this case, I'd imagine.

Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law

#34

So what would be the penalty if someone does something happens to it? Not flippant question as I am genuinely interested.

That wouldn't be cricket https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj-7SPf8_Qk

Cricket on the moon would sure be interesting.

Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law

#35

So what would be the penalty if someone does something happens to it? Not flippant question as I am genuinely interested.

how utterly arrogant and entitled this headline sounds. A case of "US superiority" which makes me want the Russians or the Chinese to nuke the ruddy thing just so they have some additional thing to whine about.

Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law

#36
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple of reasons. 1. Your nationals can be expected to follow your laws. 2. You can use this as a stepping stone to asking other countries to normalize their laws to be similar to yours, or for a treaty negotiation, or for a UN decision. The principle of this law isn't a bad one, and it should be extended to other early artifacts of lunar exploration.

> You can use this as a stepping stone to asking other countries to normalize their laws to be similar to yours You are certainly correct, if maybe only in theory. At the rate things are going, good luck with any country freely harmonizing anything with the USA. The USA is more likely on a steady course of becoming increasingly less relevant to anyone but themselves. A different president is not going to change that.…

> The USA is more likely on a steady course of becoming increasingly less relevant to anyone but themselves.

While it is certainly true that the USA is loosing it's status as the world's only superpower, it is still very much the most powerfull country and will probably stay, if not number 1, at least in the top 3 for at least the rest of our lifetime. I wouldn't call that irrelevant.

Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law

#37
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don’t say things like that. Someone might get the bright idea to put it on a referendum...

If I had to guess, I’d expect such a referendum to return a “join America” result and then for almost everyone to be surprised that doing so means (1) losing the Queen, (2) losing the Pound, and (3) losing essentially all gun restrictions.

No, obviously our Queen would still supersede the President, and that privilege would be graciously extended to the other states again.

Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law

#38
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don’t say things like that. Someone might get the bright idea to put it on a referendum...

If I had to guess, I’d expect such a referendum to return a “join America” result and then for almost everyone to be surprised that doing so means (1) losing the Queen, (2) losing the Pound, and (3) losing essentially all gun restrictions.

... (4) Not actually becoming a US state

Not being flippant here - there are territories already within the USA that for various reasons cannot become a "US state".

Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can use this as a stepping stone to asking other countries to normalize their laws to be similar to yours You are certainly correct, if maybe only in theory. At the rate things are going, good luck with any country freely harmonizing anything with the USA. The USA is more likely on a steady course of becoming increasingly less relevant to anyone but themselves. A different president is not going to change that.…

> The USA is more likely on a steady course of becoming increasingly less relevant to anyone but themselves. While it is certainly true that the USA is loosing it's status as the world's only superpower, it is still very much the most powerfull country and will probably stay, if not number 1, at least in the top 3 for at least the rest of our lifetime. I wouldn't call that irrelevant.

However, the US has about entirely lost their status as a model. As-is, following US legislation would require some amount of apologetic discourse anywhere outside of North America. (That the US have left the international community for the most, or, at least, have proposed to do so – especially, when it comes to treaties and jurisdiction – doesn't especially help either.)

Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law

#40
post #34

So what would be the penalty if someone does something happens to it? Not flippant question as I am genuinely interested.

That wouldn't be cricket https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj-7SPf8_Qk Cricket on the moon would sure be interesting.

What about a moonlap? 3.5 hour drive in a Cybertruck?
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