[Loser]

Originally posted by mottlee:
Now wouldn't that be a kick in the pants!!! a TV show that had a "Real" project in it

Actually, they did an episode built around exactly that concept. It was funny. But the funny X-Files episodes were better.

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
how would the media miss a g'ould? mothership landing on that waddaya callit hollow mountain base?

NORAD, it's right up the road. Not a wrong turn you want to make. Despite the fact that there are many signs that tell you that you are not supposed to be there, every now and then someone will make it far enough that they get talked to (or yelled at) by overly-excited eighteen-year-olds with assault rifles.

Originally posted by Narrew:
Also, I am not a rocket scientist, nor a lawyer, but wth good is a treaty if they aint up there, I mean, lets say again for argument, that a HUGE corporation decided to make space exploration a reality. Said Corp mines an asteroid, brings back material, before arrival they get wind of a court order to confiscate it on return, so they land in a 3rd world country that never signed the treaty, has an agreement with the Corp that the country will get an import fee to build up that country and they will support that Corp. So now what?

I just cant see what anyone could do, with things the way they are now, there is no super power in space, I dont consider that space station nothing more than a novelty item. So couldn't someone just thumb their noses at anyone that tried to impose that treaty. If a company had the resources to colonize mars, what would keep them from claiming it all if no one else could get there (I mean, corporations are greedy aren't they?).

What you are forgetting, there, is that "No man is an island." This is still true for the corporations, and even the super corporations.

Even a launch facility is difficult to build, take a look at what Brazil has been going through. A launch facility for large craft capable of leaving Earth's orbit would be monumental. Even the Soviets had trouble with that.

Add to that the necessity of government funding for developing the rockets in the first place, and the near-impossibility of getting off that addiction, and you've got a Highly Unlikely on the Speculation Scale for Independent Corporations Taking Over Outer Space.