Mars-Based Aerospace Manufacturing Facilities

Planning continues for the Mars-based manufacturing facilities which will fabricate aerospace vehicles to traverse the Martian airspace.

If the US, despite clear agreements with Cuba that US will exericse jurisdiction over Guantanamo but the US Supreme Court refuses to enforce that, then there is a real question of what legal authority will ensure Mars based units conduct their business in a lawful manner.

The US government has shown that it sill not enforce the rule of law where all US power is applied. The world community needs to decide what must be done to ensure US combat forces and manufacturing facilities on Mars are used to support illegal activity; or non-Earth based units refuse to enforce the laws of war.

If the US Supreme Court will not enforce a lease with binds the US government to exericse jurisdiction over Guantanamo -- only 90 miles from Florida -- there is little prospect US forces or facilities on Mars will be effectively governed by the United States.

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The distances on Mars, like Earth can be daunting. The Apollo missions showed the limits crews could travel around their landing craft.

When humans travel and live on Mars, it will not be efficient to confine all travel on Mars to land-based vehicles. There will be air-frame vehicles allowing faster movement across larger distances.

Mars is about six months travel from Earth. Spare parts for aerospace vehilces would have to be sent in convoys, however this costly, slow, and not necessarily consistent with unforeseen accidents.

What To Watch For

Eventually, humans will develop surface-based manufacturing plants on Mars to develop, create, maintain, and support aerospace vehicles. These will not be like jet aircraft we see flying through the Earth Atmosphere.

The airframes will be tailored to the unique operating conditions on Mars with its different atmosphere, gravity, and environmental conditions.

Wind tunnel testing on Earth will simulate the Martian atmosphere; however, the subsequent maintenance and parts manufacturing will likely be based on Mars, supporting a large fleet of atmospheric vehicles. Whether these are first manufactured on the Moon, and sent to Mars; or whether they are ultimately manufactured on Mars is secondary.

The fleet operations on Mars will require parts, surface manufacturing, and other depot-like support. The activities would include parts manufacturing, repair, and eventually full-scale production facilities we see in the automotive industry. It would be absurd to bring the raw material from Earth when the raw materials required to support this manufacturing could be mined from Mars.

Mars-based units would require timely support. A fully operational, independently managed, and separate manufacturing facility will be required to support and sustain aerospace vehicles on Mars.

Because of the time delays in communicating with either Earth or the moon from Mars, it would not be efficient to have the production facility on Mars controlled from Earth. The facility would have to be independently run. All facility operations would have to be under the control of a regional manager who would have direct control of the day to day safety.

If there were accidents in the manufacturing plant, the Mars-based personnel would not have time to consult with Earth controllers. They would have to independently act, intervene, provide medical assistance, and safeguard property.

If there were accidents on Mars, or maintenance requirements, there no time to coordinate recovery vessels or backup parts runs from either the Moon or Earth to support mars.

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The world should presume the US Supreme Court's reckless decision not to fully enforce Geneva is fair warning what the US government will do to pretend that the law does not apply.

In truth, the laws of war are not related only to prisoners of war; but are requirements on detaining powers to respect prisoner's of war. It doesn't matte whether the United States is or is not conducting operations in Florida, Cuba, or Mars: The US laws shall apply.

However, if the Supreme Court refuses to enforce the Geneva Conventions in Cuba, especially where the lease provisions state that the US government shall exercise jurisdiction, then the world community needs to decide now whether it is going to let the United States engage in continued illegal activity on Earth or elsewhere.

The US may not credibly call itself an independent, sovereign country when it ignores lease terms, refuses to exercise jurisdiction, and says that it is above the laws of war. The Conventions apply to the United Stets as a detaining power; the status of the prisoners of war or their location is meaningless.

Using the Supreme Court's absurd logic, if the United were to transport prisoners of war to the Moon or Mars, but that facility was leased from another government, the Supreme Court would absurdly conclude the US government was not responsible for complying with Geneva.

No, the only reason this US has any control of the prisoners is because the United States detained them. Whether the prisoners of war are detained in Cuba, Florida, the moon, or on Mars is irrelevant. Geneva applies to the United States, regardless the status or location of the prisoners of war.

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The US has shown that it will not enforce the laws of war in a facility it controls; nor will it fully comply with the lease terms it imposed on Cuba; nor follow the terms which impose on the US the requirement to exercise jurisdiction.

It can hardly be said the US is a responsible government.

The issue for the world community to debate: If the US won't comply with the on earth, why would anyone believe that the US will do so elsewhere?

The competetiton with the US isn't to keep the US out; but to ensure that there are independent observers compelling the US government to fully comply with the law either on the Moon or Mars.

If the US SUpreme COurt will not timely, fully enforce the laws of war against the US as a detainin power; but it makes excuses based on red herrings over the prisoner status or location, then there needs to be an indpendent method which other nations have to ensure the US faces consequences for failing to flly comply with the law.

The US may not use the world oppostion to its illegal space policy as a basis to argue for more illegal activity in space.

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___ What method will Congress develop to independently travel to the Moon or Mars to audit indepentny and ensure the laws of war are fully complied with?

___ What separte commercial transportation mechanism, outside NASA control, will the US COngress rely to indpendently travel and monitor the activiites on the Moon and Mars?