To quote RonM above"A mining patent is the transfer of Federal land to a private concern." Once we know who has the authority to transfer property then I wonder if it is a permanent transfer , making it "assignable". I guess that keeping any mining operation secret these days would be difficult whether it is on Mars, the Moon or an asteroid.
"Proving up" a claim might be as simple as landing equipment that surveyed the area or require actual collection and assay. Providing a method of delivery to the authority of something more tangible than data. I am not sure if flipping bits is adequate to "own" or "lease" extraterrestrial mining claims. Certainly we have a thriving space industry based on profiting from the flow of information.As the authority issuing a patent it has dual role, protect the substantial investment and monitor the impacts of resource extraction.
What we need is a step prior to physical possession (from having hardware on the surface) that protects the discoverer until they or their assignee is ready to ship and land hardware.
Quote from: Danderman on 02/16/2016 05:45 pm What we need is a step prior to physical possession (from having hardware on the surface) that protects the discoverer until they or their assignee is ready to ship and land hardware.The easiest OST compatable method is secrecy.
Not so good for actual business. Secrecy is effectively a trade secret, whereas a mining patent is intellectual property. In the Real World, trade secrets are only defensible by maintaining secrecy, whereas a patent is defensible in court.
Starting to understand logic. Now I wonder if a better word might be appropriate, given my low understanding of intellectual property law. If a copyright protects something written ( music, novel) and a patent protects something invented (software, mechanism) I seek a word for something discovered. Again, the issuing authority is who exactly?
I don't see even promising remote sensor results sufficient for actual mining patent (or deed). AFAIK it is not that even here on Earth. In-situ prospecting is required to prove that the site is viable for mining. Landing a prospector on another celestial body gives you the de facto deed.
A different approach might be a physical visit by prospecting equipment, capable of making several such stops over its expected lifetime. Would leaving behind evidence of exploratory excavations provide a claim within the terms of OST?
So the physical presence of the descent stage of the LUNA series provides the rights. What if a prospecting lander left no parts behind, merely traces of the excavation used to determine resource availability? Would that be compelling evidence in accordance with OST?I accept your assertion that " no one is going to land a spacecraft to find valuable ores, they would survey from space," just wondering what could provide evidence admissible in a court of law of "rights" to a specific location unless and until you have actually touched the surface.
The problem is that no one is going to land a spacecraft to find valuable ores, they would survey from space, looking for outcroppings. Having to actually mine to generate the right to mine is a dead end proposition.
Quote from: Danderman on 02/17/2016 08:27 pm The problem is that no one is going to land a spacecraft to find valuable ores, they would survey from space, looking for outcroppings. Having to actually mine to generate the right to mine is a dead end proposition.Someone is going to land spacecrafts to verify that there are mineable resources. I doubt anyone would fund a full scale mining equipment flotilla into outer space unless a prospector-lander has visited the target, drilled here, scooped there and analyzed the samples.
The question is what does the prospector have to disclose in order to be awarded a mining patent? Let's say that a NEO has a diameter of 500 meters, and a prospector finds a platinum ore outcropping that is 30 meters in diameter, how is that discovery quantified and proven via survey?Does the prospector get a patent that covers the entire NEO or just some portion of it?
Mining patents are not accepted in several countries, so a US patent won't protect the prospector completely.