[sschueller]

So whom ever gets there first makes the rules?

However if this is not suppped to be a joke then this is absolutely insane. There is no way humans, other then maybe a few austranouts will make it to mars in the next 20 years by which this service will be obsolete or no longer exist.

Edit: If HN is still around in 20 years I will be asking you to reconsider your down votes.

[CivBase]

> However if this is not suppped to be a joke then this is absolutely insane.

I'm not sure how to interpret it as anything other than a joke. Humans might make it to Mars in the next 20 years, but the idea that we will have established a colony there along with an array of Starlink satellites to provide internet service and, presumably, a means of connecting the Martian internet back to Earth's... well, that's over-ambitious even by Musk's standards.

[toxik]

If a bit of sci-fi in your ToS makes people actually read them, what’s the harm?

[rthomas6]

Applicability aside, how else could it even work, other than colony self-governance? Otherwise what's to stop one country from just claiming the whole planet when they get there? You could still have colonies ruled by certain countries, the way I read the sentence.

[wmf]

It's basically a joke because the Outer Space Treaty has already defined rules for planetary colonization and they don't allow Mars to be a "free planet".

[koheripbal]

That treaty in and of itself is basically a joke because laws only apply to places you have force to enforce them.

[spamtarget]

what downvotes? i can only upvote

[sv123]

Once you reach 500 comment karma you can downvote on HN.