Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
In a slew of new posts to Trump-owned social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump has claimed ownership of the Moon for America, whilst also suggesting that the US state of New Mexico could be renamed New America.
Social media is fairly new, and we can only speculate how previous presidents of the USA would have used it. Except to say, of course, that Theodore Roosevelt would, with 100 percent certainty, have been constantly posting thirst traps.
Don't believe us? Well, check this out:
Giant killer robots and... the Moon?
Well, we're now in a world in which the actual president of the actual USA cannot help but post artificially-generated images and videos on a daily basis, covering a wide variety of topics.
Over the last day or so, Trump has posted images of himself mocked up as Hulk Hogan draped in the stars and stripes, images of himself smashing up Iran with a large mallet, and an image of George Washington sat listening to Trump in the Oval Office.
Those are just some of the posts which don't involve him sitting on a throne surrounded by killer robots.
With that being his style, we probably shouldn't place too much emphasis on what Trump posts to social media.
But a few posts that have caused a little attention from the media, partly because of the recent renaming of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, are a post suggesting New Mexico should be renamed New America and another claiming that the Moon belongs to the USA.
Who owns the Moon?
While the US is free to rename various landmarks, and the rest of the world is free to ignore that, there are international agreements that prevent the US (or any other nation) from claiming ownership of the Moon.
In 1967, 111 countries signed up to the Outer Space Treaty, the important bit of international law that governs what humanity can and cannot get up to beyond the confines of Earth.
That includes everything from who is responsible for space junk to, rather pleasingly, who actually owns Neil Armstrong’s substantial collection of Moon poops.
Crucially, the treaty explicitly states that “outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means”. In other words, no country can plant a flag on a bit of celestial real estate and declare it theirs.
This applies whether you're talking about the Moon, Mars, or, for someone with truly unreasonable ambitions and/or misconceptions about gas, Jupiter.
“The most important precept of the Outer Space Treaty is that space is for everyone, and everyone shall have freedom of exploration and access to all areas,” Michelle Hanlon, Air and Space Law Instructor at Research Counsel, told IFLScience.
“The other really important precept is that no state may claim territory in space. Nobody has that authority over the Moon.”
Could there be a Trump Towers: Lunar?
This becomes a little more complicated when you start talking about actually building things up there.
“If you’re building lunar research stations, the Outer Space Treaty has this concept that if it's for science it's OK, so long as you share all your information with everybody,” Hanlon explained. “But what about building a hotel on the Moon? There's nobody who has the authority to say, yes, you can build that hotel."
In short, the international treaty is unambiguous, and the US is signed up to it. That sounds reassuring, but the President has not exactly been shy about withdrawing from international agreements.
"In reality, the only international law that exists is that which is imposed by the hegemon (or hegemons), who can break it at will," Space Industry Analyst Peter Hague explained on Substack, calling the space treaty "essentially a fig leaf" at this point.
"No major signatory to the Outer Space Treaty considers its most restrictive aspects, on matters such as territorial claims and military activities, as things they are committed not to do," he added.
The treaty is not some magical document which prevents wrongdoing in space by virtue of existing, but a commitment to enforce the rules through pressure here on Earth.
We don't yet know how the world would respond should anyone try to claim ownership of the Moon. With the main barriers still being getting to the Moon and remaining there for significant periods of time, don't expect our natural satellite to become Space America anytime soon.
