No, this isn't spornam. Got this off Frontier Files <http://www.space-frontier.org/FFO/>. Orbital Development has claimed title to 433 Eros. When NASA landed NEAR-Shoemaker on Eros, OrbDev sent them an invoice - for one hundred years storage - for $20.00. NASA must have spent thousands of dollars trying to figure out what to do about this $20.00 invoice. I purely love it. Talk about leveraging your investment.
Full story at http://www.erosproject.com/030824.html. OrbDev's theory is that the Outer Space Treaty is binding on the U.S. but not on U.S. citizens because Uncle Sam has no authority to restrict property rights by treaty. Cites Ninth and Tenth Amendments. They're full of hooey, of course; Article VI <http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articlevi.html> clearly states that the Constitution, and Federal laws, *and* ratified treaties, "shall be the supreme law of the land." So their case has about as much weight as the people who claim Federal income tax is compulsory only if you were not born in a state (e.g. DC, PR, Marshall Islands). But at least OrbDev has a sense of humor about it. Twenty cents a year for storage. That's class. -R -- Son: Dad, I have a question about women. Suppose I Dagwood: Apologize anyway. Son: Yeah, that's about what I figured Dagwood: It saves time _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
