The Company you keep

​The conquest of space by State sponsored private corporate groups is perhaps seated in the public consciousness, but what thought is given to its long-term implications? It is a question of sovereignty and of liberty.
 
The British Empire was built on controlling Global trade; the royal navy exerted dominance by policing the sea-lanes.
 
A strong naval presence is still required today, but more important are space-based assets, if you want to control global trade, you have to control the satellites.
 
While US hegemony may be dwindling, what is significant however is not the composition of low earth orbit technologies, but the extending sphere of economic influence space technology affords.
 
The mining of the moon continues to be an ambition, one perhaps closely linked to Energy technologies due to its abundance of Helium-3. But plans also exist for operations further afield, such as the capture and mining of natural satellites and even of establishing a colony on Mars.
 
These things have been dreamed about for a long time, that they are increasingly within reach is highlighted by the establishment of legal frameworks addressing issues of ownership. If someone is going to go to such trouble and expense, they are going to want to legally own that which they claim. Existing agreements do not extend into space. It is these quiet legal proceedings that reveal a transition into an open multi-planetary economy, that have all kinds of political and military implications.
 
People often don’t feel truly free living on this planet, that access too and the economic bounty of space exploration will be at the hands of private corporate interests, should perhaps be no surprise. It is after all, simply how things are here on Earth. It is the implications for where it is heading that are perhaps cause for concern. If you find yourself in a situation where you do not own the air that you breath, what have you become?