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Elon Musk Declares Mars Exempt from Earth Laws: Colony Will Be Self-Governing

Elon Musk has made no secret of wanting to be the first to set up a colony on Mars, but if you still had doubts about his intentions, know that he’s already setting the legal framework for it. And he’s doing so by declaring Mars exempt from Earthbound laws.
Elon Musk is laying the legal framework for colonizing Mars, by declaring it a free planet 1 photo
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Buried in Starlink’s beta consumer service terms and discovered by Whole Mars Catalog is a section named Governing Laws, which clearly declares Mars a “free planet.” As such, it’s free of Earthbound laws, which means that settlers here won’t have to abide by laws governing the Earth but be able to make their own. Considering Musk aims to put them there with SpaceX, this basically gives him free rein to make the laws on Mars.

“For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities,” the section reads.

Earthbound laws will be applicable around Earth and on the Moon, but anything farther than that is considered exempt from them. As such, people who colonize Mars will have to make their own laws. Or, more exactly: “Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.”

Now, the meaning behind Musk’s “Free Mars” has fully been revealed / confirmed. Then again, for those who kept up with the latest developments on Starlink, the network of artificial satellites meant to bring Internet to space, and SpaceX, this can’t come as a huge surprise. A while back, Elon Musk himself said that the Martian colony would have to be Earth-independent in every way, since a hypothetical World War III might be the end of our planet, so settlers would have to learn to make do without any outside help.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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