Who Speaks for the Martians?

People have speculated that individual governments from Earth have ultimate control over what science experiments and human presence will occur on Mars, but this is not the case. Ultimate control on Mars depends on specific missions. In 1984 an international body of scientists worked together to create a Planetary Protection Policy for Mars. This policy is designed to preserve the Mars environment from contamination by humans or other organic matter from Earth that accidentally travels on our manned or unmanned missions. The Mars Pathfinder rover had to be sterilized before it left Earth in order to ensure Mars would not be contaminated.

The meteorite ALH84001.0, recently discovered in Antarctica, may provide evidence that there was once life on Mars. It is believed that this meteorite contains ancient, fossilized, Martian bacteria. If Mars has living bacteria, we may need to be careful about any samples we return with from Mars. In 1989 an international body of scientists created another policy on the Protection of Earth from Mars Sample Return Missions.

In the future, if we colonize Mars, what laws will govern how we work together? The Antarctic Treaty is a good example of how humans from many different countries work together peacefully on Earth. This document could be the basis for future Martian Law.

The Mars Shop is a web site that which offers to sell property on Mars or the moon. This company's claims are false, they do not own Mars or the moon. One funny thing about their page is that their map of property already sold on Mars is upside down! The following story from CNN news tells about two men from Yemen that claim Mars is theirs.