If someone blew up one of Saturn's moons, what crime would they be charged with?

Question

Is there a law against damaging or destroying natural bodies of the solar system?

Answer 1

If you have that kind of power, and if you are ruthless and smart, then you can defy the laws and spit on governments. First, prepare a few hundred of those big bombs. Second, put them on rockets aimed at Earth (see sources for the transfer orbit math). Third, announce to the governments of Earth that you will begin destroying them unless they adjust their policies into an accordance with your wishes, then tell them what your wishes are. Fourth, after the government of Earth refuse (as, of course, they will), you tell them that you are about to destroy Mimas, a moon of Saturn, at such-and-such a time and invite them to watch the demolition through the Hubble Space Telescope. Then you blow up Mimas. Then you radio Earth again and say that the next explosions will occur in New York City, Washington, London, Paris, Toronto, Ottawa, and Berlin... however, since Earth's government did not obey you at once, you will destroy Jerusalem/Tel Aviv anyway... then launch the appropriately aimed missile (with decoys and chaff of course). You can have all kinds of fun, if you are mobile and independent in space with the power to bombard Earth.

Answer 2

If someone shoots a gun into a crowd, even if the gun is legal and he/she has no intent to kill anyone (you know..just fooling around) and someone dies from their action, they can be charged with murder by "depraved indifference".

Would someone die from the loss of the moon? Who knows? Jupiter does appear to protect us somewhat from asteroid collisions. I would imagine that anything "out there" might do the same at one time or another.

It sure would be an interesting case.

Answer 3

If someone had the power to do that, nobody would dare charge them.  It isn't necessary since that power doesn't exist.

Answer 4

High crimes.  Possibly misdemeanors.  Both punishable by death.

Answer 5

Locked up for life.

Answer 6

Space object murder or SOM

Answer 7

It require a cosiderable amount of finance & involvement of very intelligent & commited humanbeings of sizeable number.

So once they done with it the only best option to punish them rather than  killing them immediately, just parcel  off all those brains behind the crime, to the remaining moons of Saturn.

That way we put a human-foot on that far distant stretch of solar system.Make sure that they be given beforehand all the varities of fruits & veggies available  on Earth.

After there crash into respective moon  most of them will die due to hostile enviornment  but  if someone survives we will get a specific moon to probe further for human settlement there instead of probing all of them.

If in case all dies , still we will succeed in planting microbes & greenery to do further  research on consequences.

I suppose such harsh treatment is necessary as they may one day blew our moon too.

Answer 8

he wud be asked 2 pay a fine of 500 bucks. come'on..... a saturn's moon is a public property.... u should take good care of it.....

Answer 9

LOL come on who has that kind of power however there are some international laws out there to protect us and space but untill yhe need arises theres no law which i know about blowing up a moon who would want to everyone wants to explore the moons

Answer 10

I don't think breaking the laws of nature is possible.  Therefore you cannot be charged or prosecuted.  But perhaps you should be institutionalized.  

Answer 11

Unlawful possession of a doomsday device.

Answer 12

  Sculldugery.

Answer 13

The 17th High Triumvirate Court of Saturn has jurisdiction over that area, I believe.  If you were located on Earth, they would request extradition to their supreme court, which is located on Io.  After that, it really depends on which moon.  Currently Farbauti is already scheduled for demolition, so if you destroyed that one you'd actually be saving them a lot of time and expense.  You might still be charged with demolition without a license, though, unless you did happen to get a license first.  

If you destroyed a populated moon, I'm afraid you'd be in pretty big trouble.  You could be charged with genocide.  There is hope though.  The law system there takes into account many factors, including how awesome and well-planned your crime was.  (They value the ability to plan and scheme above other things that we might call morals.  The biggest crime that you can commit there is to do something without thinking about it ahead of time.)  If you pulled it off without a hitch, you might even gain a kind of celebrity or hero status there.

Answer 14

How would someone go about destroying the natural bodies in the Solar System? They would probably be charged as a terrorist for being in possession of that kind of equipment, as they would be viewed as a threat to society.

Answer 15

Probably the same laws that say no nation or person on Earth can possess any celestial body. They can "colonize" them, but not own them. I'm sure there's international laws that relate to the destruction of celestial bodies, as well.