Homesteading

August 28, 2010

The principle of homesteading is drawn from the mid-late 1800s when the US government made available large quantities of land to anyone who would go and stake their claim to it. The House of Representatives passed the Homestead Act by a vote of 107 to 16 on February 28, 1862. The Senate passed this act by a vote of 33 to 7 on May 6, 1862. Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act encouraged Western migration by providing settlers with 160 acres of public land. Only about 40 percent of the applicants who started the process were able to complete it and obtain title to their homestead land. Eventually 1.6 million homesteads were granted and 270,000,000 acres (420,000 sq mi) of federal land were privatized between 1862 and 1934, a total of 10% of all lands in the United States. Homesteading was discontinued in 1976, except in Alaska, where it continued until 1986.

The new law provided the opportunity for settlers to acquire 160 acres of public land for a home. All the settler had to do was accomplish three steps:

1.	File an application
	Any U.S. citizen, or intended citizen, 21 years old or older who had never borne arms against the U.S. Government could file an application and lay claim to the land.
2.	Improve the land
	For the next 5 years, the homesteader had to live on the land and improve it by building a 12-by-14 dwelling and growing crops.
3.	File for deed of title
	After 5 years, the homesteader filed for his patent (deed of title) by submitting proof of residency and improvements to a local land office.

The Homestead Act led to the distribution of 80 million acres of public land by 1900.

The moon represents a different challenge. But similarities can still be applied. What is needed is a new, International Homestead policy. Such a policy could be enacted by a single nation, however it could not be enforced effectively, much less with the current verbage of the '67 space treaty.

However, if an initiative by the United Nations were to be enacted, empowering a (choke) UN Beaurocracy (gag-choke-cough-sputter) to administer it, we the citizens of earth might just have a chance.

I propose the following as some beginning details for such a new Space Homesteading Initiative. All a settler should have to do is accomplish three steps:

1.	File an application
	Any person, who can gain transportation to the selected area of land on another planet or moon could file an application and lay claim to the land. The settler must file the application in person with a Homestead office, then actually get to the land in question.
2.	Improve the land
	The settler must survive and live on the land for the next 5 years, improving it by a) establishing a dwelling, b) growing crops for subsistence, and c) demonstrate a tangible product to export from that homestead.
3.	File for deed of title
	After 5 years, the homesteader will file for his patent (deed of title) by submitting proof of residency, improvements, and export sales to a local land office.

Homesteaders are not astronauts. But they must be healthy, and capable of performing the necessary tasks to setup, and administer their habitat.

It is high time that the powers that be recognized that to open the frontier that is space, the hardy, working men and women must be given their chance to carve out their livings before any realization of long term economic or scientific benefit can ever be achieved.

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