[transhumanist]

The thing with Tourism is that there will be no development of space resources. You will continue to own what you already owned before launch, no more. That is covered in the Treaty.

You miss my point. Without property rights... real property rights as we understand them on Earth... there won't be any real development of space tourism. And when the government figures out the economic benefits to be had therefrom (and I happen to think they already have; witness the recent vote) they will make sure those rights are upheld. Hyatt and Hilton won't commit until that is the case, and the government WANTS them to commit. The government sees the potential revenue (not to mention the potential energy benefits) and knows that private enterprise is the way to obtain it. Yet another reason to be thankful that Kerry didn't win.

[RightWhale]

The point is, and this is covered by the Treaty, you already have property rights to what you will need for Tourism.

Space resource development is a different story. It isn't happening yet should be already. Why is it not happening?