Ownership
The hypothetical discovery of usable quantities of water on the Moon may raise legal questions about who owns the water and who has the right to exploit it. The United Nations Outer Space Treaty does not prevent the exploitation of lunar resources, but does prevent the appropriation of the Moon by individual nations and is generally interpreted as barring countries from claiming ownership of in-situ resources. The Moon Treaty specifically stipulates that exploitation of lunar resources is to be governed by an "international regime", but this treaty has not been ratified by any of the major space-faring nations.
Read more about this topic: Lunar Water
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