American 'space pioneers' deserve asteroid rights, Congress says

In a rare bipartisan moment US lawmakers opened up the possibility of mining on other worlds despite an international treaty barring sovereign claims in space

Asteroid platinum and the briny water on Mars may soon be available for plunder, Republicans and Democrats have agreed, advancing a bill that would grant "space resource rights" and could challenge an international treaty on outer space.

The US Senate passed the Space Act of 2015 this week, sending its revisions of the bill back to the House for an expected approval, after which it would land on the president's desk. The bill has a slew of provisions to encourage commercial companies that want to explore space and exploit its resources, granting "asteroid resource" and "space resource" rights to US citizens who managed to acquire the resource themselves.