<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>You know the Golden Rule: "He who has the gold, makes the rules." <br /><br />Once the Chinese and others begin to see the obvious value in exploiting the Moon's apparent natural bounty, I don't think it will really matter what the leaders of poorer countries think. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Actually, it matters a lot. Maybe not for the least developed countries, but for the industrial developing countries, like Brazil, Argentina or India, their opinion is important because they have advanced technologies but lack the monetary resources, which they could gain if they break the Antartic Treaty and gets oil out of it, something the rich countries don't want. It's all a question of international politics: the US will probably create some kind of international regime for the moon, that allows the extraction of resources but gives some sort of "carrot" to smaller countries. That will open the lunar door to private industries, but gain the support of the developing world. This is my field of study, so trust me when I tell you that this has happened before (China in the late 19 Century, Africa). Actually, I think is a good idea. The question of private lunar property is, though, a more difficult subject.