[[{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/224018","site":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":224018,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/224018","url":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/achieve-radio-silence-west-virginia-town","path_alias":"achieve-radio-silence-west-virginia-town","label":"This West Virginia Town Has Gone Radio Silent","content":"<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"660\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=BUtosZXb\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=ywreFyNY\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=gbZletY7\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=0zNXtvJo\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"660\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=BUtosZXb\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=ywreFyNY\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=gbZletY7\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=0zNXtvJo\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=ywreFyNY\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Illustration by Max Temescu<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>The town of Green Bank, West Virginia, sits at the heart of the National Radio Quiet Zone, where cellphones, Wi-Fi routers, and broadcast antennas are all but absent. For most, it is a throwback to a different era. But for an increasing number of new residents, it is a rare refuge from wireless technology. Welcome to the fringe of the electromagnetic age.<\/p>\n\n<p>One day in 2003, Diane Schou\u2019s hair started falling out. She got rashes and lingering headaches. Her doctor didn\u2019t know what was causing her symptoms, but Diane began to have her suspicions. She\u2019d fallen ill around the same time a new cellphone tower went up near her Iowa farm. When she drove by the tower, her headaches worsened. So she and her husband, Bert, jumped in their Winnebago and fled. Diane didn\u2019t know what she was running from. All she knew was that she felt better the farther she got from that cell tower, and civilization in general.<\/p>\n\n<p>Months after leaving Iowa, while stopped at a state park in North Carolina, a forest ranger told the Schous about a place called Green Bank, West Virginia. It was in the middle of something called the National Radio Quiet Zone. So the Schous went to Green Bank for a few days. It was a nice place, but they quickly moved on, like gypsies of the electromagnetic age, searching for somewhere insulated from the technology now synonymous with modern society. Along the way, Diane learned that her affliction had a name--electrohypersensitivity, or EHS--and that there were other electrosensitives like her. She also learned that most doctors don\u2019t believe her condition exists, at least outside of her mind.<\/p>\n\n<p>According to the World Health Organization (WHO), EHS is not a medical diagnosis, but rather a vague set of symptoms with no apparent physiological basis. Even so, the condition--whatever its cause--appears to be widespread. Olle Johansson, an associate professor of neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, says the number of people who claim to have EHS varies by country, from 8 percent of the population in Germany to 3.5 percent, or about 11 million people, in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThere are few epidemic diseases this large,\u201d Johansson says.  \u201cNowadays, wherever you live, whatever you do, you\u2019re whole-body exposed, 24\/7.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=V1csKBZ-\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=o1MLgh1f\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=xiymRQUZ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=4eAhUgSn\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=V1csKBZ-\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=o1MLgh1f\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=xiymRQUZ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=4eAhUgSn\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=o1MLgh1f\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Photograph by Steve Featherstone<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>The Green Bank Telescope is so sensitive that even a poorly insulated electric fence miles away can skew readings.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>For Diane, the debate around EHS was academic. Her suffering was real, and no matter how far she ran--to an island in Nicaragua or a yurt in Lapland--she kept coming back to one place: Green Bank, population 143. In 2007, after racking up 170,000 miles on their RV, Diane and Bert sold off half their farmland in Iowa and used the money to buy a house in Green Bank. Diane has lived there ever since.<\/p>\n\n<p>Over the past several years, Diane\u2019s symptoms have faded. Her rashes dis\u00adappeared. Her hair grew back. And while she says a stranger\u2019s cellphone will still send bolts of pain through her head, she\u2019s recovered to the point that she can use a computer again. But she can never return to the farm in Iowa. Green Bank is her home now, and that\u2019s given Diane a certain sense of purpose. As a conductor on the electrosensitive underground railroad, she has helped, by her estimate, dozens of technological refugees find shelter there. More are arriving every year, and they\u2019re finding that getting out of the radiation is the easy part. Fitting into a small town is a whole different story.<\/p>\n\n<p>Green Bank is more a hamlet than an actual town. There is a library, a post office, and a school, but mostly it consists of farms and houses scattered throughout a pastoral valley in the Allegheny Mountains, surrounded by steep, forested slopes.\nThree years ago, Melissa Chalmers and a woman I\u2019ll call Jane (at her request for privacy), met through Diane on an EHS Internet forum. Both women are airline pilots, and they had been looking for a retreat from the Wi-Fi and cellphones they so often contend with while traveling. Diane encouraged them to come to Green Bank for a trial visit.<\/p>\n\n<p>On a cold November evening, I met Melissa and Jane at the Green Bank Cabins, a row of three log cabins located next to the Dollar General store. Billed as a rustic escape from \u201cthe fast pace of life,\u201d the one-room cabins were built in 1810 and have since been updated with electricity and plumbing. I rented the cabin next to Melissa and Jane\u2019s. We planned to explore Green Bank together, so I could see how they responded. Things were not going well. Even after switching off the cabin\u2019s circuit breakers and lighting candles, Jane said she felt itchy. Every 20 minutes, she got up to check her soaring blood pressure with a portable monitor. Melissa was uncomfortable too. She winced occasionally at the stray electromagnetic pulses that she said needled her skin.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t just stop at your skin, like light would,\u201d she said. \u201cIt goes into your body. You start getting all fogged out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Melissa pulled a digital gauss meter from her luggage. She began tracing the web of electrical wires stapled to their cabin\u2019s log walls, searching for errant sources of electromagmetic radiation (EMR). Then she scanned the air using a radio frequency (RF) meter that looked like a prop from the set of the old Lost in Space program. She found slightly higher readings in that cabin than mine, so I obliged when they asked me to switch. The next morning, I found Melissa holding her gauss meter beneath some power lines running behind my cabin. \u201cI think I found the source,\u201d she grinned. \u201cI told you there was something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=sLnIXHbI\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=pYtiRSNq\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=K_Z764uQ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=U-oUGmac\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=sLnIXHbI\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=pYtiRSNq\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=K_Z764uQ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=U-oUGmac\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=pYtiRSNq\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Photograph by Steve Featherstone<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Diane Schou is a leader of Green Bank\u2019s electrosensitive community. At home, she can use a computer, but only sparingly.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>A little later, I grabbed breakfast at Henry\u2019s Quick Stop and drove two miles up the road to see the town\u2019s most notable landmark, the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), the largest steerable radio telescope in the world. Up close, the GBT is a behemoth of white steel and aluminium scaffolding taller than the Statue of Liberty. Its 100-meter dish is visible from just about everywhere in the valley, and it\u2019s perhaps the only thing in town that\u2019s more finely tuned to electromagnetic fields than electrosensitives themselves.<\/p>\n\n<p>The purpose of the GBT is to capture extremely weak radio signals emanating from the farthest reaches of space. In 1958, the federal government created the National Radio Quiet Zone to shield the GBT and the nearby Sugar Grove listening post (now run by the National Security Agency) from electromagnetic interference. As a result, cellphone, television, and radio transmissions--all of which rely on electromagnetic waves--are heavily restricted within its 13,000-square-mile area and banned in a 10-mile radius around the GBT. Residents are not entirely cut off. They can access TV and Internet with cable. But Green Bank is one of the few places in the world where electrosensitives can be certain that no one is going to erect a cell tower in their backyard or bolt a smart meter to their house.<\/p>\n\n<p>Although it\u2019s in the heart of the Quiet Zone, Green Bank isn\u2019t completely free of EMR. After all, sunlight is a form of EMR, and electromagnetic fields ring the planet. The big difference between natural sources and man-made ones is their intensity. \u201cCompared to natural levels, the exposure levels today are astronomical,\u201d Johansson says. \u201cI would even say biblical--enormously high.\u201d For example, he says, if you were to take a cellphone and place it on the moon in standby mode, it would still be the most powerful EMR source in the universe from the perspective of Earth.<\/p>\n\n<h6>\"It doesn\u2019t just stop at your skin, like light would. It goes into your body. You start getting all fogged out.\"<\/h6>\n\n<p>Electrosensitives say they feel electromagnetic fields the same way the GBT detects radio signals from space--except it hurts. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m being cooked to death every time I get in the plane,\u201d Jane says.<\/p>\n\n<p>As palpable as Jane\u2019s symptoms are to her--and as certain as she is that they\u2019re caused by EMR--scientific consensus disagrees. Almost universally, scientists hold that most EMR has no adverse health effects at the levels people typically encounter. And no study has ever definitively linked EHS symptoms to RF radiation, a type of electromagnetic radiation that originates from wireless devices, such as Wi-Fi routers, cellphones, base stations, or Bluetooth antennas. \u201cHealth agencies have repeatedly waded through the scientific literature,\u201d says Kenneth Foster, professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, \u201cand they don\u2019t see any clear evidence that there\u2019s a problem other than if you put a rat in a microwave oven, it\u2019s bad for the rat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>The only recognized health risk from RF radiation is the heating of tissue (as in the rat in the microwave). In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a safety standard for RF-emitting devices based on thermal heating. That\u2019s why even though the standard is set far below levels recognized to cause harm, wireless companies still recommend not carrying your phone around in your pocket or sleeping with one too close to your head.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=5gIG1Tcr\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=d5qM8Ihm\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=yPI0GjJZ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=Y3BEq1Mj\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=5gIG1Tcr\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=d5qM8Ihm\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=yPI0GjJZ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=Y3BEq1Mj\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=d5qM8Ihm\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Photograph by Steve Featherstone<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>The caf\u00e9 at the Green Bank observatory is one of the few lunch spots in town.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>According to Joel Moskowitz, the director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California at Berkeley, the test for the thermal standard is outdated if not irrelevant. \u201cIt\u2019s not at all reflective of what the average user looks like today and not really of any user anywhere,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not even the right measurement.\u201d Moskowitz believes that science hasn\u2019t caught up with the rapid proliferation of RF-emitting devices--from smartphones to smart meters--that have been spilling radiation into our homes, schools, and workplaces over the past two decades. Electrosensitives may be the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, he says. He cites a growing body of research that suggests RF exposure has many nonthermal biological effects, including damage to sperm cells and changes in brain chemistry. \u201cThere are a lot of unanswered questions, obviously, but we clearly have evidence for precautionary health warnings,\u201d Moskowitz says.<\/p>\n\n<p>Melissa and Jane certainly had no shortage of questions by their second day in Green Bank. Jane\u2019s blood pressure hadn\u2019t gone down, and Melissa still felt tingly sensations on her skin. Something was triggering their symptoms, but Melissa\u2019s equipment couldn\u2019t identify what it was. According to a survey of dozens of studies, the biggest challenge in diagnosing EHS is that those suffering from it often exhibit what\u2019s called the \u201cnocebo effect,\u201d where even the expectation of exposure to EMR can cause physiological symptoms. During dinner at the cabin, Melissa switched on her RF meter and began walking around the room. The reading was 100 times lower than what she\u2019d recorded in the basement of her home in Canada before a cellphone company put up towers nearby. Puzzled by this, Melissa and Jane tried to square their symptoms with the extremely low measurement.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cMaybe I\u2019m reading it wrong,\u201d Melissa said, pressing the meter\u2019s buttons.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t call it the National Radio Quiet Zone for nothing,\u201d I said. \u201cMaybe it really is that low,\u201d Melissa shrugged. \u201cIt\u2019s just that I\u2019ve never seen it that low.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Like Diane Schou, Jennifer Woods\u2019s journey as an electrosensitive began with upheaval. In 1997, she quit her job as an architect and left her family in Hawaii. She spent the next decade adrift, mostly living out of her car as she drove across the country seeking a cure for her chronic health problems. She tried conventional medicine and homeopathic treatments, but nothing worked. Three years ago, she heard about Green Bank at an alternative medicine conference; within 48 hours, she was parked in Diane\u2019s driveway. \u201cI weighed 80 pounds at the time,\u201d Jennifer said. \u201cI was at death\u2019s door.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>She went to live in a one-room shack in a hollow with no electricity or running water. Within nine months, she\u2019d put on 50 pounds. \u201cI did no medical treatment,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t change my diet. The only thing I changed was I got out of the radiation. That\u2019s proof enough that [EMR] was causing my illness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Jennifer now lives in a one-room cabin on a wooded ridge outside of town that she designed and built herself. Her second home is the Green Bank Public Library, a small building situated on a hill near the middle school. A plaque out front announces it as the 2003 Rural Library of the Year. With eight computers hard-wired to the Internet, the library provides many electrosensitives with their only connection to the outside world. There\u2019s also a kitchenette in the back where Jennifer keeps a few groceries, since she doesn\u2019t have a refrigerator in her cabin.<\/p>\n\n<p>One morning, Jennifer made coffee and chatted with Arnie Stewart, a library volunteer whom she considers her guardian angel. \u201cI\u2019ve got big gossip,\u201d whispered Arnie. \u201cMonique married Tom.\u201d The news came as a shock. Monique is an outspoken EHS activist recently arrived from Florida; Tom is a Green Bank local known for his traditional views. Later that day, Jennifer relayed the news of Monique and Tom\u2019s nuptials to Diane Schou.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not going to last,\u201d Diane frowned, \u201cTom doesn\u2019t believe in [EHS].\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Diane had reason to be doubtful. As the town\u2019s first electrosensitive resident and the unofficial representative for electrosensitives who came after her, she is a lightning rod for criticism. Four years ago, Bert Schou gave a lecture at Green Bank\u2019s senior center aimed at educating people about EHS. It was a watershed moment in relations between native Green Bank residents and the electrosensitive community. All the skeptics in town showed up, including Tom. After Bert\u2019s lecture, they accused Diane of everything from faking her illness to purposely delaying the construction of a local health clinic. \u201cI was tarred and feathered,\u201d Diane said. \u201cI regret that I was ever there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cWe crucified her,\u201d Arnie told me. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, but we did.\u201d The way he remembered it, a confrontation had been brewing for a long time. It began when Diane asked the senior center to replace fluorescent lights in one section so she\u2019d have a place to eat. It escalated when she requested that someone bring a plate to her table so that she wouldn\u2019t be exposed to fluorescent lights near the kitchen. It reached a climax when she asked for \ngluten-free options on the menu. By the time Bert gave his lecture, the burning issue on the minds of many in the audience wasn\u2019t the health effects of electromagnetic radiation--Arnie, for one, is convinced EHS is real--but rather Diane\u2019s constant demands for special treatment. \u201cA woman with one arm stood up,\u201d Arnie recalled, \u201cand she said, \u2018Look, Diane, no one brings my plate to my table.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Since then, relations between townsfolk and electrosensitives have reached a kind of d\u00e9tente. At Diane\u2019s request, the minister at her church no longer uses a wireless microphone. Her dentist switches off the fluorescent lights in his office. Cashiers at the Dollar General sometimes bring items outside and allow electrosensitives to pay for them in the parking lot. But Diane and other electrosensitives are alert to the tension lurking beneath social interactions. The situation isn\u2019t as simple as close-minded hillbillies reacting to overbearing outsiders. It\u2019s that in places like Green Bank, personal relationships go back generations. Anyone moving to a town of 143 would stand out, much less a dozen or so electrosensitives who show up and start turning out the lights. It\u2019s not hard to see how an \u201cus versus them\u201d mentality could take root.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default float-left\"><img class=\"float-left\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1502\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=W9ywoRbb\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=rT-5r0iR\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=AunuZdis\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=4zBXSo85\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"float-left\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1502\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=W9ywoRbb\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=rT-5r0iR\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=AunuZdis\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=4zBXSo85\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=rT-5r0iR\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Photograph by Steve Featherstone<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Martin Weatherall tests an electric recliner for harmful radiation.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>One afternoon, a group of us set out on a mission of mercy. A new member of the Green Bank EHS community was having a hard time with her home. Melissa, Jane, and Martin Weatherall, an electrosensitive and retired policeman from Stratford, Ontario, who has been coming to Green Bank since 2012, had offered to scan it for her. So we piled into a car and went. Along the way, we stopped in the town of Dunmore.<\/p>\n\n<p>Five miles south of Green Bank, Dunmore consists of a few homes and a store situated at an intersection. The store was the sort of all-purpose gas station\/bakery\/de facto town hall often found in rural areas that haven\u2019t been colonized by fast food chains or retail behemoths. We ordered lunch and ate at a picnic table outside as logging trucks rumbled by. Everybody was in high spirits. Perhaps it was the warm sunshine or the low EMR levels. After swapping cabins with me, Melissa and Jane had been sleeping better. Jane\u2019s blood pressure was back down, and Melissa\u2019s chronic tinnitus was completely gone. \u201cI feel good,\u201d Martin added, \u201cdefinitely better than I do in Stratford.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Inside the store, I asked the proprietor, who had recently moved to the Quiet Zone, about her experience with electrosensitive customers. She launched into a diatribe about \u201coutsiders\u201d who annoyed her with their petty demands and condescending attitudes and unwillingness to fit in. I thanked her and left, but she waved me down in the parking lot. Back in the store, a knot of grim-faced men confronted me. The proprietor loudly proclaimed that with the sheriff\u2019s deputy as her witness, she was retracting everything she\u2019d said. Unless a camouflage T-shirt qualified as a uniform, none of the men appeared to be officers of the law. One man took my tape recorder and barked at me to come outside with him. As I explained the situation, his eyes narrowed each time I used words like electromagnetic and journalist. Finally, he returned my tape recorder, pointed his finger at my chest, and growled, \u201cJust be careful what you\u2019re doing here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Over six days, Diane gave Melissa and Jane the full Green Bank experience. They visited the post office and library, toured the observatory and the town dump. They attended a mountain music jamboree headlined by a band whose fiddler was also the GBT\u2019s principal scientist. On Sunday, Diane shepherded the women to two church services 15 miles apart. They were welcomed just about everywhere. After the service at the Church of the Nazarene in Durbin, the organist asked Jane what it felt like to have EHS. She listened intently to Jane\u2019s reply and posed a question that electrosensitives have been asking for years. \u201cThey make allotments for all kinds of ailments,\u201d the organist said. \u201cWhy can\u2019t they recognize this one?\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Jane didn\u2019t have an answer--because there isn\u2019t one. Without an official medical diagnosis, it\u2019s difficult for EHS sufferers to claim benefits from insurance companies and government health agencies. Only Sweden recognizes EHS as a functional impairment, equivalent to a disability. But activists are beginning to have an impact on attitudes toward EHS and EMR-related issues, such as the use of wireless networks in public schools. Some day they hope that the medical establishment will treat EHS like other mysterious syndromes, such as fibromyalgia. They won a moral victory in 2011, when the WHO classified RF radiation as \u201cpossibly carcinogenic\u201d in response to its Interphone study, which found a 40 percent greater risk for certain brain tumors at the highest exposure levels. (Scientists, however, did not find an increased incidence in cellphone users overall.) Then, in February of this year, France restricted the use of RF devices in daycare centers, citing a precautionary approach to exposure. Those gains aside, few if any studies are taking seriously the issue of EHS, and the inexorable expansion of wireless technologies does not appear to be slowing. Barring a breakdown in relations between electrosensitives and townsfolk or defunding of the GBT, Green Bank will continue to attract technological refugees searching for a safe haven from the electrosmog they feel is smothering the rest of the world.<\/p>\n\n<h6>Electrosensitives fervently believe that it's just a matter of time before the rest of the world catches on to what they already know.<\/h6>\n\n<p>Near the end of Melissa and Jane\u2019s visit, Diane hosted a potluck dinner for them at her house, a large brick colonial on a wooded hill overlooking a bend on a dark country road. Electrosensitives showed up with bottles of wine and covered dishes. Faces lit by flickering candlelight, they gathered around Diane\u2019s kitchen table and talked long into the night about the usual topics: rumors of a Wi-Fi network that the observatory was installing for town residents, old Soviet studies on microwave radiation, and the looming wireless pandemic. Everyone contributed a cautionary tale about \u201cnormal\u201d people they knew--a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker--who were suddenly struck low by an overdose of EMR and are now struggling with health problems. Electrosensitives fervently \nbelieve that it\u2019s just a matter of time before the rest of the world catches on to what they already know.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cYour body is getting affected--it\u2019s just going to take a few years to really know it,\u201d Martin warned me, \u201cunless you end up like us, and then you\u2019ll wish you\u2019d never seen wireless stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>I asked the group what they preferred to be called--electrosensitives? EHS\u2019ers?<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cI prefer injured or harmed,\u201d Diane said.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThat gets people very nervous,\u201d another person said.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cWell they should be nervous,\u201d Diane said. \u201cThey could be harmed too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cEMF people,\u201d Jennifer offered. \u201cElectrocuted people,\u201d Martin deadpanned, and everybody laughed.<\/p>\n\n<p>Although the conspiratorial tone got a little thick at times, the electrosensitives sitting around Diane\u2019s kitchen table weren\u2019t technophobic Luddites or doomsday preppers nursing violent fantasies of social collapse. Their conversation seemed quaint in its directness, an artifact from a time when communication between people was unmediated by texts, tweets, and Facebook updates thumbed on smartphones. Over dessert, Jane announced that she was getting a realtor to look for houses in Green Bank. As for Melissa, she didn\u2019t even want to go home. \u201cI feel like I can finally have my life back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n<p>Despite its abundant natural beauty and rural charm, electrosensitives come to Green Bank because they have no other place to go. Unless you know somebody, it\u2019s almost impossible to find a job or a place to live there. Some electrosensitives leave town soon after they arrive, unable to cope with the remoteness of the place. But Diane Schou has plans to make Green Bank more accessible. Through a nonprofit, she bought 14 acres of land to establish an electrosensitive retreat. Money for the property came from private donations. On my last morning in Green Bank, she took me to see the land. I followed her car down a narrow dirt lane set between double-wide homes. We came to a clearing scented by wood smoke and pine needles. A small cabin stood at the edge of the clearing.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIf people find that they\u2019re affected by [EMR], they can get away from it, get it turned off, recover,\u201d Diane said. That\u2019s how it worked for her. Living in the Quiet Zone, away from the cell towers, has allowed Diane to recuperate. Now, she can tolerate limited excursions into the wireless world to visit her son in Baltimore. \u201cYou might be able to go back home and take cautions and be able to live maybe a normal life,\u201d she said, pausing. \u201cMaybe. Cautiously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Diane walked around the clearing, gesturing to places where she planned to build structures. Cabins over here. A communal area over there. In this spot, a shielded computer room. Other board members of the nonprofit vetoed the computer room. Too much EMR, they said. But Diane insisted. People have lives. They might want to keep working or email or Skype with their families. It\u2019s a community, not a cult.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I call [EHS] technological leprosy,\u201d Diane said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be with other people in society. We have to live like lepers. Technology is wonderful stuff--if we aren\u2019t harmed by it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Leaving town, the GBT\u2019s big white dish floated in my rearview mirror like a harvest moon shining in the clear autumn sky. At an intersection somewhere in the mountains, I realized that I\u2019d left my road map at the cabin. My cellphone didn\u2019t work, and the radio played only static. I couldn\u2019t remember the last time I\u2019d gotten lost, but I knew I\u2019d left the Quiet Zone when I heard a preacher\u2019s voice cutting through the static on the radio. \u201cYou see, our problem is not our weaknesses,\u201d he bellowed. \u201cOur problem is not staying plugged in! We need to plug into our power source, which is God!\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>I turned the radio off, relishing the silence while it lasted.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>This article was originally published in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/10th-annual-how-it-works\">April 2015 issue<\/a> of<\/em> Popular Science, <em>under the title \"Greetings From The Quiet Zone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","teaser":"<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"660\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=BUtosZXb\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites","ss_name":"Lydia Ramsey","tos_name":"Lydia Ramsey","ss_name_formatted":"Lydia Ramsey","tos_name_formatted":"Lydia Ramsey","is_uid":430,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2015-04-13T13:59:57Z","ds_changed":"2015-04-15T16:04:15Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2015-04-15T16:04:15Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":true,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"ts_bonnier_summary":"\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    The town of Green Bank, West Virginia, sits at the heart of the National Radio Quiet Zone, where cellphones, Wi-Fi routers, and broadcast antennas are all but absent. For&hellip;  <\/div>\n","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"<div class=\"primary-channel-eyebrow\"><a href=\"\/tags\/technology\">Technology<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2016-08-02T15:24:11.514Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_gallery_items":["0"],"sm_field_gallery_display":["gallery_none"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_4x3\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=67A-Hj9Y"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"sm_field_customhtml_display":["customhtml_none"],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"tid":[214211,206075,214328,214267,214268,213935,212430,62,63,212918,214269],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["technology"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Steve Featherstone"],"tm_vid_1_names":["april 2015 issues quiet zone electrohypersensitivity Green Bank West Virginia Health Science Technology editor&#039;s picks"],"spell":["This West Virginia Town Has Gone Radio Silent","<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"660\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=BUtosZXb\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=ywreFyNY\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=gbZletY7\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=0zNXtvJo\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"660\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=BUtosZXb\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=ywreFyNY\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=gbZletY7\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=0zNXtvJo\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/quiet-zone.jpg?itok=ywreFyNY\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Illustration by Max Temescu<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>The town of Green Bank, West Virginia, sits at the heart of the National Radio Quiet Zone, where cellphones, Wi-Fi routers, and broadcast antennas are all but absent. For most, it is a throwback to a different era. But for an increasing number of new residents, it is a rare refuge from wireless technology. Welcome to the fringe of the electromagnetic age.<\/p>\n\n<p>One day in 2003, Diane Schou\u2019s hair started falling out. She got rashes and lingering headaches. Her doctor didn\u2019t know what was causing her symptoms, but Diane began to have her suspicions. She\u2019d fallen ill around the same time a new cellphone tower went up near her Iowa farm. When she drove by the tower, her headaches worsened. So she and her husband, Bert, jumped in their Winnebago and fled. Diane didn\u2019t know what she was running from. All she knew was that she felt better the farther she got from that cell tower, and civilization in general.<\/p>\n\n<p>Months after leaving Iowa, while stopped at a state park in North Carolina, a forest ranger told the Schous about a place called Green Bank, West Virginia. It was in the middle of something called the National Radio Quiet Zone. So the Schous went to Green Bank for a few days. It was a nice place, but they quickly moved on, like gypsies of the electromagnetic age, searching for somewhere insulated from the technology now synonymous with modern society. Along the way, Diane learned that her affliction had a name--electrohypersensitivity, or EHS--and that there were other electrosensitives like her. She also learned that most doctors don\u2019t believe her condition exists, at least outside of her mind.<\/p>\n\n<p>According to the World Health Organization (WHO), EHS is not a medical diagnosis, but rather a vague set of symptoms with no apparent physiological basis. Even so, the condition--whatever its cause--appears to be widespread. Olle Johansson, an associate professor of neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, says the number of people who claim to have EHS varies by country, from 8 percent of the population in Germany to 3.5 percent, or about 11 million people, in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThere are few epidemic diseases this large,\u201d Johansson says.  \u201cNowadays, wherever you live, whatever you do, you\u2019re whole-body exposed, 24\/7.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=V1csKBZ-\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=o1MLgh1f\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=xiymRQUZ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=4eAhUgSn\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=V1csKBZ-\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=o1MLgh1f\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=xiymRQUZ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=4eAhUgSn\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/green-bank-telescope.jpg?itok=o1MLgh1f\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Photograph by Steve Featherstone<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>The Green Bank Telescope is so sensitive that even a poorly insulated electric fence miles away can skew readings.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>For Diane, the debate around EHS was academic. Her suffering was real, and no matter how far she ran--to an island in Nicaragua or a yurt in Lapland--she kept coming back to one place: Green Bank, population 143. In 2007, after racking up 170,000 miles on their RV, Diane and Bert sold off half their farmland in Iowa and used the money to buy a house in Green Bank. Diane has lived there ever since.<\/p>\n\n<p>Over the past several years, Diane\u2019s symptoms have faded. Her rashes dis\u00adappeared. Her hair grew back. And while she says a stranger\u2019s cellphone will still send bolts of pain through her head, she\u2019s recovered to the point that she can use a computer again. But she can never return to the farm in Iowa. Green Bank is her home now, and that\u2019s given Diane a certain sense of purpose. As a conductor on the electrosensitive underground railroad, she has helped, by her estimate, dozens of technological refugees find shelter there. More are arriving every year, and they\u2019re finding that getting out of the radiation is the easy part. Fitting into a small town is a whole different story.<\/p>\n\n<p>Green Bank is more a hamlet than an actual town. There is a library, a post office, and a school, but mostly it consists of farms and houses scattered throughout a pastoral valley in the Allegheny Mountains, surrounded by steep, forested slopes.\nThree years ago, Melissa Chalmers and a woman I\u2019ll call Jane (at her request for privacy), met through Diane on an EHS Internet forum. Both women are airline pilots, and they had been looking for a retreat from the Wi-Fi and cellphones they so often contend with while traveling. Diane encouraged them to come to Green Bank for a trial visit.<\/p>\n\n<p>On a cold November evening, I met Melissa and Jane at the Green Bank Cabins, a row of three log cabins located next to the Dollar General store. Billed as a rustic escape from \u201cthe fast pace of life,\u201d the one-room cabins were built in 1810 and have since been updated with electricity and plumbing. I rented the cabin next to Melissa and Jane\u2019s. We planned to explore Green Bank together, so I could see how they responded. Things were not going well. Even after switching off the cabin\u2019s circuit breakers and lighting candles, Jane said she felt itchy. Every 20 minutes, she got up to check her soaring blood pressure with a portable monitor. Melissa was uncomfortable too. She winced occasionally at the stray electromagnetic pulses that she said needled her skin.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t just stop at your skin, like light would,\u201d she said. \u201cIt goes into your body. You start getting all fogged out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Melissa pulled a digital gauss meter from her luggage. She began tracing the web of electrical wires stapled to their cabin\u2019s log walls, searching for errant sources of electromagmetic radiation (EMR). Then she scanned the air using a radio frequency (RF) meter that looked like a prop from the set of the old Lost in Space program. She found slightly higher readings in that cabin than mine, so I obliged when they asked me to switch. The next morning, I found Melissa holding her gauss meter beneath some power lines running behind my cabin. \u201cI think I found the source,\u201d she grinned. \u201cI told you there was something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=sLnIXHbI\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=pYtiRSNq\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=K_Z764uQ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=U-oUGmac\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=sLnIXHbI\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=pYtiRSNq\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=K_Z764uQ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=U-oUGmac\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/diane-schou.jpg?itok=pYtiRSNq\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Photograph by Steve Featherstone<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Diane Schou is a leader of Green Bank\u2019s electrosensitive community. At home, she can use a computer, but only sparingly.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>A little later, I grabbed breakfast at Henry\u2019s Quick Stop and drove two miles up the road to see the town\u2019s most notable landmark, the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), the largest steerable radio telescope in the world. Up close, the GBT is a behemoth of white steel and aluminium scaffolding taller than the Statue of Liberty. Its 100-meter dish is visible from just about everywhere in the valley, and it\u2019s perhaps the only thing in town that\u2019s more finely tuned to electromagnetic fields than electrosensitives themselves.<\/p>\n\n<p>The purpose of the GBT is to capture extremely weak radio signals emanating from the farthest reaches of space. In 1958, the federal government created the National Radio Quiet Zone to shield the GBT and the nearby Sugar Grove listening post (now run by the National Security Agency) from electromagnetic interference. As a result, cellphone, television, and radio transmissions--all of which rely on electromagnetic waves--are heavily restricted within its 13,000-square-mile area and banned in a 10-mile radius around the GBT. Residents are not entirely cut off. They can access TV and Internet with cable. But Green Bank is one of the few places in the world where electrosensitives can be certain that no one is going to erect a cell tower in their backyard or bolt a smart meter to their house.<\/p>\n\n<p>Although it\u2019s in the heart of the Quiet Zone, Green Bank isn\u2019t completely free of EMR. After all, sunlight is a form of EMR, and electromagnetic fields ring the planet. The big difference between natural sources and man-made ones is their intensity. \u201cCompared to natural levels, the exposure levels today are astronomical,\u201d Johansson says. \u201cI would even say biblical--enormously high.\u201d For example, he says, if you were to take a cellphone and place it on the moon in standby mode, it would still be the most powerful EMR source in the universe from the perspective of Earth.<\/p>\n\n<h6>\"It doesn\u2019t just stop at your skin, like light would. It goes into your body. You start getting all fogged out.\"<\/h6>\n\n<p>Electrosensitives say they feel electromagnetic fields the same way the GBT detects radio signals from space--except it hurts. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m being cooked to death every time I get in the plane,\u201d Jane says.<\/p>\n\n<p>As palpable as Jane\u2019s symptoms are to her--and as certain as she is that they\u2019re caused by EMR--scientific consensus disagrees. Almost universally, scientists hold that most EMR has no adverse health effects at the levels people typically encounter. And no study has ever definitively linked EHS symptoms to RF radiation, a type of electromagnetic radiation that originates from wireless devices, such as Wi-Fi routers, cellphones, base stations, or Bluetooth antennas. \u201cHealth agencies have repeatedly waded through the scientific literature,\u201d says Kenneth Foster, professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, \u201cand they don\u2019t see any clear evidence that there\u2019s a problem other than if you put a rat in a microwave oven, it\u2019s bad for the rat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>The only recognized health risk from RF radiation is the heating of tissue (as in the rat in the microwave). In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a safety standard for RF-emitting devices based on thermal heating. That\u2019s why even though the standard is set far below levels recognized to cause harm, wireless companies still recommend not carrying your phone around in your pocket or sleeping with one too close to your head.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=5gIG1Tcr\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=d5qM8Ihm\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=yPI0GjJZ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=Y3BEq1Mj\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=5gIG1Tcr\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=d5qM8Ihm\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=yPI0GjJZ\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=Y3BEq1Mj\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/cafe-green-bank-observatory.jpg?itok=d5qM8Ihm\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Photograph by Steve Featherstone<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>The caf\u00e9 at the Green Bank observatory is one of the few lunch spots in town.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>According to Joel Moskowitz, the director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California at Berkeley, the test for the thermal standard is outdated if not irrelevant. \u201cIt\u2019s not at all reflective of what the average user looks like today and not really of any user anywhere,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not even the right measurement.\u201d Moskowitz believes that science hasn\u2019t caught up with the rapid proliferation of RF-emitting devices--from smartphones to smart meters--that have been spilling radiation into our homes, schools, and workplaces over the past two decades. Electrosensitives may be the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, he says. He cites a growing body of research that suggests RF exposure has many nonthermal biological effects, including damage to sperm cells and changes in brain chemistry. \u201cThere are a lot of unanswered questions, obviously, but we clearly have evidence for precautionary health warnings,\u201d Moskowitz says.<\/p>\n\n<p>Melissa and Jane certainly had no shortage of questions by their second day in Green Bank. Jane\u2019s blood pressure hadn\u2019t gone down, and Melissa still felt tingly sensations on her skin. Something was triggering their symptoms, but Melissa\u2019s equipment couldn\u2019t identify what it was. According to a survey of dozens of studies, the biggest challenge in diagnosing EHS is that those suffering from it often exhibit what\u2019s called the \u201cnocebo effect,\u201d where even the expectation of exposure to EMR can cause physiological symptoms. During dinner at the cabin, Melissa switched on her RF meter and began walking around the room. The reading was 100 times lower than what she\u2019d recorded in the basement of her home in Canada before a cellphone company put up towers nearby. Puzzled by this, Melissa and Jane tried to square their symptoms with the extremely low measurement.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cMaybe I\u2019m reading it wrong,\u201d Melissa said, pressing the meter\u2019s buttons.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t call it the National Radio Quiet Zone for nothing,\u201d I said. \u201cMaybe it really is that low,\u201d Melissa shrugged. \u201cIt\u2019s just that I\u2019ve never seen it that low.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Like Diane Schou, Jennifer Woods\u2019s journey as an electrosensitive began with upheaval. In 1997, she quit her job as an architect and left her family in Hawaii. She spent the next decade adrift, mostly living out of her car as she drove across the country seeking a cure for her chronic health problems. She tried conventional medicine and homeopathic treatments, but nothing worked. Three years ago, she heard about Green Bank at an alternative medicine conference; within 48 hours, she was parked in Diane\u2019s driveway. \u201cI weighed 80 pounds at the time,\u201d Jennifer said. \u201cI was at death\u2019s door.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>She went to live in a one-room shack in a hollow with no electricity or running water. Within nine months, she\u2019d put on 50 pounds. \u201cI did no medical treatment,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t change my diet. The only thing I changed was I got out of the radiation. That\u2019s proof enough that [EMR] was causing my illness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Jennifer now lives in a one-room cabin on a wooded ridge outside of town that she designed and built herself. Her second home is the Green Bank Public Library, a small building situated on a hill near the middle school. A plaque out front announces it as the 2003 Rural Library of the Year. With eight computers hard-wired to the Internet, the library provides many electrosensitives with their only connection to the outside world. There\u2019s also a kitchenette in the back where Jennifer keeps a few groceries, since she doesn\u2019t have a refrigerator in her cabin.<\/p>\n\n<p>One morning, Jennifer made coffee and chatted with Arnie Stewart, a library volunteer whom she considers her guardian angel. \u201cI\u2019ve got big gossip,\u201d whispered Arnie. \u201cMonique married Tom.\u201d The news came as a shock. Monique is an outspoken EHS activist recently arrived from Florida; Tom is a Green Bank local known for his traditional views. Later that day, Jennifer relayed the news of Monique and Tom\u2019s nuptials to Diane Schou.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not going to last,\u201d Diane frowned, \u201cTom doesn\u2019t believe in [EHS].\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Diane had reason to be doubtful. As the town\u2019s first electrosensitive resident and the unofficial representative for electrosensitives who came after her, she is a lightning rod for criticism. Four years ago, Bert Schou gave a lecture at Green Bank\u2019s senior center aimed at educating people about EHS. It was a watershed moment in relations between native Green Bank residents and the electrosensitive community. All the skeptics in town showed up, including Tom. After Bert\u2019s lecture, they accused Diane of everything from faking her illness to purposely delaying the construction of a local health clinic. \u201cI was tarred and feathered,\u201d Diane said. \u201cI regret that I was ever there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cWe crucified her,\u201d Arnie told me. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, but we did.\u201d The way he remembered it, a confrontation had been brewing for a long time. It began when Diane asked the senior center to replace fluorescent lights in one section so she\u2019d have a place to eat. It escalated when she requested that someone bring a plate to her table so that she wouldn\u2019t be exposed to fluorescent lights near the kitchen. It reached a climax when she asked for \ngluten-free options on the menu. By the time Bert gave his lecture, the burning issue on the minds of many in the audience wasn\u2019t the health effects of electromagnetic radiation--Arnie, for one, is convinced EHS is real--but rather Diane\u2019s constant demands for special treatment. \u201cA woman with one arm stood up,\u201d Arnie recalled, \u201cand she said, \u2018Look, Diane, no one brings my plate to my table.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Since then, relations between townsfolk and electrosensitives have reached a kind of d\u00e9tente. At Diane\u2019s request, the minister at her church no longer uses a wireless microphone. Her dentist switches off the fluorescent lights in his office. Cashiers at the Dollar General sometimes bring items outside and allow electrosensitives to pay for them in the parking lot. But Diane and other electrosensitives are alert to the tension lurking beneath social interactions. The situation isn\u2019t as simple as close-minded hillbillies reacting to overbearing outsiders. It\u2019s that in places like Green Bank, personal relationships go back generations. Anyone moving to a town of 143 would stand out, much less a dozen or so electrosensitives who show up and start turning out the lights. It\u2019s not hard to see how an \u201cus versus them\u201d mentality could take root.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default float-left\"><img class=\"float-left\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1502\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=W9ywoRbb\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=rT-5r0iR\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=AunuZdis\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=4zBXSo85\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img class=\"float-left\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1502\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=W9ywoRbb\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=rT-5r0iR\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=AunuZdis\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=4zBXSo85\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/martin-weatherall.jpg?itok=rT-5r0iR\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Photograph by Steve Featherstone<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Martin Weatherall tests an electric recliner for harmful radiation.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>One afternoon, a group of us set out on a mission of mercy. A new member of the Green Bank EHS community was having a hard time with her home. Melissa, Jane, and Martin Weatherall, an electrosensitive and retired policeman from Stratford, Ontario, who has been coming to Green Bank since 2012, had offered to scan it for her. So we piled into a car and went. Along the way, we stopped in the town of Dunmore.<\/p>\n\n<p>Five miles south of Green Bank, Dunmore consists of a few homes and a store situated at an intersection. The store was the sort of all-purpose gas station\/bakery\/de facto town hall often found in rural areas that haven\u2019t been colonized by fast food chains or retail behemoths. We ordered lunch and ate at a picnic table outside as logging trucks rumbled by. Everybody was in high spirits. Perhaps it was the warm sunshine or the low EMR levels. After swapping cabins with me, Melissa and Jane had been sleeping better. Jane\u2019s blood pressure was back down, and Melissa\u2019s chronic tinnitus was completely gone. \u201cI feel good,\u201d Martin added, \u201cdefinitely better than I do in Stratford.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Inside the store, I asked the proprietor, who had recently moved to the Quiet Zone, about her experience with electrosensitive customers. She launched into a diatribe about \u201coutsiders\u201d who annoyed her with their petty demands and condescending attitudes and unwillingness to fit in. I thanked her and left, but she waved me down in the parking lot. Back in the store, a knot of grim-faced men confronted me. The proprietor loudly proclaimed that with the sheriff\u2019s deputy as her witness, she was retracting everything she\u2019d said. Unless a camouflage T-shirt qualified as a uniform, none of the men appeared to be officers of the law. One man took my tape recorder and barked at me to come outside with him. As I explained the situation, his eyes narrowed each time I used words like electromagnetic and journalist. Finally, he returned my tape recorder, pointed his finger at my chest, and growled, \u201cJust be careful what you\u2019re doing here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Over six days, Diane gave Melissa and Jane the full Green Bank experience. They visited the post office and library, toured the observatory and the town dump. They attended a mountain music jamboree headlined by a band whose fiddler was also the GBT\u2019s principal scientist. On Sunday, Diane shepherded the women to two church services 15 miles apart. They were welcomed just about everywhere. After the service at the Church of the Nazarene in Durbin, the organist asked Jane what it felt like to have EHS. She listened intently to Jane\u2019s reply and posed a question that electrosensitives have been asking for years. \u201cThey make allotments for all kinds of ailments,\u201d the organist said. \u201cWhy can\u2019t they recognize this one?\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Jane didn\u2019t have an answer--because there isn\u2019t one. Without an official medical diagnosis, it\u2019s difficult for EHS sufferers to claim benefits from insurance companies and government health agencies. Only Sweden recognizes EHS as a functional impairment, equivalent to a disability. But activists are beginning to have an impact on attitudes toward EHS and EMR-related issues, such as the use of wireless networks in public schools. Some day they hope that the medical establishment will treat EHS like other mysterious syndromes, such as fibromyalgia. They won a moral victory in 2011, when the WHO classified RF radiation as \u201cpossibly carcinogenic\u201d in response to its Interphone study, which found a 40 percent greater risk for certain brain tumors at the highest exposure levels. (Scientists, however, did not find an increased incidence in cellphone users overall.) Then, in February of this year, France restricted the use of RF devices in daycare centers, citing a precautionary approach to exposure. Those gains aside, few if any studies are taking seriously the issue of EHS, and the inexorable expansion of wireless technologies does not appear to be slowing. Barring a breakdown in relations between electrosensitives and townsfolk or defunding of the GBT, Green Bank will continue to attract technological refugees searching for a safe haven from the electrosmog they feel is smothering the rest of the world.<\/p>\n\n<h6>Electrosensitives fervently believe that it's just a matter of time before the rest of the world catches on to what they already know.<\/h6>\n\n<p>Near the end of Melissa and Jane\u2019s visit, Diane hosted a potluck dinner for them at her house, a large brick colonial on a wooded hill overlooking a bend on a dark country road. Electrosensitives showed up with bottles of wine and covered dishes. Faces lit by flickering candlelight, they gathered around Diane\u2019s kitchen table and talked long into the night about the usual topics: rumors of a Wi-Fi network that the observatory was installing for town residents, old Soviet studies on microwave radiation, and the looming wireless pandemic. Everyone contributed a cautionary tale about \u201cnormal\u201d people they knew--a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker--who were suddenly struck low by an overdose of EMR and are now struggling with health problems. Electrosensitives fervently \nbelieve that it\u2019s just a matter of time before the rest of the world catches on to what they already know.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cYour body is getting affected--it\u2019s just going to take a few years to really know it,\u201d Martin warned me, \u201cunless you end up like us, and then you\u2019ll wish you\u2019d never seen wireless stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>I asked the group what they preferred to be called--electrosensitives? EHS\u2019ers?<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cI prefer injured or harmed,\u201d Diane said.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThat gets people very nervous,\u201d another person said.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cWell they should be nervous,\u201d Diane said. \u201cThey could be harmed too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cEMF people,\u201d Jennifer offered. \u201cElectrocuted people,\u201d Martin deadpanned, and everybody laughed.<\/p>\n\n<p>Although the conspiratorial tone got a little thick at times, the electrosensitives sitting around Diane\u2019s kitchen table weren\u2019t technophobic Luddites or doomsday preppers nursing violent fantasies of social collapse. Their conversation seemed quaint in its directness, an artifact from a time when communication between people was unmediated by texts, tweets, and Facebook updates thumbed on smartphones. Over dessert, Jane announced that she was getting a realtor to look for houses in Green Bank. As for Melissa, she didn\u2019t even want to go home. \u201cI feel like I can finally have my life back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n<p>Despite its abundant natural beauty and rural charm, electrosensitives come to Green Bank because they have no other place to go. Unless you know somebody, it\u2019s almost impossible to find a job or a place to live there. Some electrosensitives leave town soon after they arrive, unable to cope with the remoteness of the place. But Diane Schou has plans to make Green Bank more accessible. Through a nonprofit, she bought 14 acres of land to establish an electrosensitive retreat. Money for the property came from private donations. On my last morning in Green Bank, she took me to see the land. I followed her car down a narrow dirt lane set between double-wide homes. We came to a clearing scented by wood smoke and pine needles. A small cabin stood at the edge of the clearing.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIf people find that they\u2019re affected by [EMR], they can get away from it, get it turned off, recover,\u201d Diane said. That\u2019s how it worked for her. Living in the Quiet Zone, away from the cell towers, has allowed Diane to recuperate. Now, she can tolerate limited excursions into the wireless world to visit her son in Baltimore. \u201cYou might be able to go back home and take cautions and be able to live maybe a normal life,\u201d she said, pausing. \u201cMaybe. Cautiously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Diane walked around the clearing, gesturing to places where she planned to build structures. Cabins over here. A communal area over there. In this spot, a shielded computer room. Other board members of the nonprofit vetoed the computer room. Too much EMR, they said. But Diane insisted. People have lives. They might want to keep working or email or Skype with their families. It\u2019s a community, not a cult.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I call [EHS] technological leprosy,\u201d Diane said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be with other people in society. We have to live like lepers. Technology is wonderful stuff--if we aren\u2019t harmed by it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Leaving town, the GBT\u2019s big white dish floated in my rearview mirror like a harvest moon shining in the clear autumn sky. At an intersection somewhere in the mountains, I realized that I\u2019d left my road map at the cabin. My cellphone didn\u2019t work, and the radio played only static. I couldn\u2019t remember the last time I\u2019d gotten lost, but I knew I\u2019d left the Quiet Zone when I heard a preacher\u2019s voice cutting through the static on the radio. \u201cYou see, our problem is not our weaknesses,\u201d he bellowed. \u201cOur problem is not staying plugged in! We need to plug into our power source, which is God!\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>I turned the radio off, relishing the silence while it lasted.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>This article was originally published in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/10th-annual-how-it-works\">April 2015 issue<\/a> of<\/em> Popular Science, <em>under the title \"Greetings From The Quiet Zone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","april 2015 issues quiet zone electrohypersensitivity Green Bank West Virginia Health Science Technology editor&#039;s picks","Steve Featherstone","\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    The town of Green Bank, West Virginia, sits at the heart of the National Radio Quiet Zone, where cellphones, Wi-Fi routers, and broadcast antennas are all but absent. For&hellip;  <\/div>\n","<div class=\"primary-channel-eyebrow\"><a href=\"\/tags\/technology\">Technology<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[true],"im_field_author":[214269],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"sm_field_subtitle":["Greetings from the Quiet Zone\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[214211,206075,214328,214267,214268,213935,212430,62,63,212918],"im_vid_2":[214269],"sm_vid_Authors":["Steve Featherstone"],"im_vid_1":[214211,206075,214328,214267,214268,213935,212430,62,63,212918],"sm_field_video_display":["video_none"],"sm_vid_Tags":["april 2015","issues","quiet zone","electrohypersensitivity","Green Bank","West Virginia","Health","Science","Technology","editor&#039;s 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three of the world's wildest destinations.\n"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_4x3\/public\/images\/tout-images\/2015\/12\/xsci.jpg?itok=jzEvXoZ7"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"im_field_tags":[204260,212918,212416,63,215359,62],"im_vid_1":[204260,212918,212416,63,215359,62],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"tid":[204260,212918,212416,63,215359,62],"sm_field_primary_channel":["science"],"sm_vid_Tags":["Features","editor&#039;s picks","Space","Technology","Extreme Science","Science"],"tm_vid_1_names":["Features editor&#039;s picks Space Technology Extreme Science Science"],"spell":["Extreme Science","","Features editor&#039;s picks Space Technology Extreme Science Science","<div class=\"primary-channel-eyebrow\"><a href=\"\/tags\/science\">Science<\/a><\/div>"],"sm_field_redirect":["{\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.popsci.com\\\/extreme-science\",\"title\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.popsci.com\\\/extreme-science\",\"attributes\":{\"rel\":\"nofollow\"},\"display_url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.popsci.com\\\/extreme-science\"}"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/226293","site":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":226293,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/226293","url":"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/it-could-soon-be-legal-to-mine-asteroids","path_alias":"it-could-soon-be-legal-to-mine-asteroids","label":"Is Space Mining Legal?","content":"<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"632\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=N1YEM-mO\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=6XObW0tB\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=AcNq6Oac\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=Hpo8UCM9\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"632\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=N1YEM-mO\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=6XObW0tB\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=AcNq6Oac\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=Hpo8UCM9\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=6XObW0tB\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Deep Space Industries<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Asteroid mining concept art<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Robotic asteroid mining might look like this.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>If mankind is ever to become an interplanetary species, our outward expansion across the solar system probably can\u2019t be fueled by NASA funding alone. Why did the first humans venture out of Africa? What made the Europeans sail into the unknown? What drove Americans to expand across the continent? Curiosity and an adventurous spirit, yes, but more importantly: resources--be they riches, food, or fertile farmland.<\/p>\n\n<p>Similarly, resources may be the only thing that can lure us from the comforts of Earth. Mining for lunar water could make it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/colonizing-moon-may-be-90-percent-cheaper-we-thought\">up to 90 percent cheaper to colonize the moon<\/a>. And extracting platinum and other minerals from asteroids could propel mankind to travel beyond low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n\n<p>At least two companies\u2014Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries\u2014are openly planning to <a href=\"\/tags\/asteroid-mining\">mine asteroids<\/a>. The former has already <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/asteroid-mining-test-vehicle-just-launched-space-station\">launched a simple test vehicle into low Earth orbit<\/a>, with more planned.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default float-right\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"665\" class=\"float-right\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=_HgB3i3a\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=RWBvI9vd\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=IemYfksI\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=CPA1wYhT\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"665\" class=\"float-right\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=_HgB3i3a\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=RWBvI9vd\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=IemYfksI\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=CPA1wYhT\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=RWBvI9vd\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Planetary Resources<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Planetary Resource's Arkyd-6 test vehicle is expected to launch in 2015 or 2016<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>It's younger sibling, Arkyd-3, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/asteroid-mining-test-vehicle-just-launched-space-station\">launched from the International Space Station<\/a> in July 2015, to test out some asteroid mining hardware.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>Both companies have a long way to go before their technologies will be able to visit an asteroid, assess what valuable resources it contains, and then <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/science\/article\/2011-11\/how-mine-asteroid\">extract those resources<\/a> and deliver them back to Earth. First the companies need to clear a major legal obstacle.<\/p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unoosa.org\/oosa\/en\/ourwork\/spacelaw\/treaties\/outerspacetreaty.html\">Outer Space Treaty<\/a>, which the U.S., Russia, and a number of other countries have signed, specifically states that nations can\u2019t own territory in space. \u201cOuter space shall be free for exploration and use by all States,\u201d the treaty says. \u201cOuter space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>But what does that mean for a private company?<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThere is no clear-cut answer as to whether [private mining in space] is legal or not,\u201d says Frans von der Dunk, a space law professor at the University of Nebraska. \u201cIt depends on your interpretation of certain rather broad statements in the Outer Space Treaty, and it depends on your particular interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>In May, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would give asteroid mining companies property rights to the minerals they extract from space. Called the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/114th-congress\/house-bill\/2262\/text\">Space Act of 2015<\/a>, the bill now awaits the Senate's decision.<\/p>\n\n<p>If the decision isn't made by the end of September or shortly thereafter, an expiring moratorium will give the Federal Aviation Administration permission to begin regulating commercial spaceflight\u2014something conservatives have wanted to postpone so that the fledgling industry could have some time to grow.<\/p>\n\n<p>Von der Dunk predicts the Senate will pass the bill by the end of October. After that, President Obama will have the opportunity to sign it into law or veto it.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The Space Act Of 2015<\/h2>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"625\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=nzmtsegR\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=h5RzWzNT\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=TD4e_ARe\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=4w0Wlgbw\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"625\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=nzmtsegR\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=h5RzWzNT\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=TD4e_ARe\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=4w0Wlgbw\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=h5RzWzNT\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Concept drawing from Deep Space Industries<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Harvesting materials from an asteroid<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>The bill (which is similar to last year's stalled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/113th-congress\/house-bill\/5063\">ASTEROIDS Act<\/a>) says that resources extracted from asteroids and other objects in space belong to the person or company who extracts them. It also would require space mining companies to \u201cavoid causing harmful interference in outer space,\u201d and allows a company to sue others who cause \u201charmful interference\u201d to space mining ventures.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIt's a very succinct act,\u201d says Von der Dunk. \u201cThat is one reason why I don't foresee many complications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Nonetheless, it\u2019s causing a bit of an uproar in the international community, says Michael Listner, lawyer and founder of the consulting firm Space Law and Policy Solutions.<\/p>\n\n<h2>International Concerns<\/h2>\n\n<p>Planetary Resources is pleased with the bill. \u201cThe SPACE Act of 2015 is a very good foundation for future asteroid resource activities,\u201d a spokesperson told <em>Popular Science<\/em>. \u201cIf the bill passed tomorrow it would explicitly state a government position that has been implied for decades. The law would provide clarity and move this entire industry ahead very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>But not everyone is enthusiastic about it. In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0265964615300102\">an article in the journal <em>Space Policy<\/em><\/a>, Fabio Tronchetti, a lawyer at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, argues that the Space Act of 2015 would violate the Outer Space Treaty. He writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>States are forbidden from extending their territorial sovereignty over outer space or any parts of it. Despite arguments claiming otherwise this prohibition also extends to private entities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>In essence, Tronchetti argues that if the U.S. passes this bill, it will confer rights to space companies that the U.S. doesn\u2019t have the power to give.<\/p>\n\n<h6>\u201cThere is no clear-cut answer as to whether mining in space is legal or not.\u201d<\/h6>\n\n<p>Tronchetti also points out that the bill\u2019s concept of \u2018harmful interference\u2019 isn\u2019t defined, and could potentially be used to create exclusion zones around mining operations. That would go against the nature of the treaty, whose goal was to make sure space remains the \u201cprovince of all mankind,\u201d open for exploration by everyone.<\/p>\n\n<p>Although von der Dunk says that even though he doesn\u2019t see anything in the current version that clearly violates international law, it could still cause concerns overseas.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cRussia and China might consider using this as another example of the economic aggression of the U.S. and going ahead of the international law,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n<p>The space mining debate probably should have started with international discussions, Tronchetti and von der Dunk agree, before going to the House and Senate.<\/p>\n\n<p>But international consensus has been hard to come by in the past. The 1979 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unoosa.org\/oosa\/en\/ourwork\/spacelaw\/treaties\/intromoon-agreement.html\">Moon Agreement<\/a>, for example, would have limited mining in space to international governing bodies. Over the years, 16 nations have signed on to the treaty, but none of the major space-faring nations have agreed to it.<\/p>\n\n<p>Von der Dunk says it\u2019s too late for those discussions now. \u201cIt would take years and lead to a watered-down version. We're probably going to go ahead with this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default float-right\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"855\" class=\"float-right\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=mcYqRcS0\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=rbqfCw8D\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=kamVwDRD\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=sgNjkREW\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"855\" class=\"float-right\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=mcYqRcS0\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=rbqfCw8D\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=kamVwDRD\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=sgNjkREW\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=rbqfCw8D\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Kevin Hand<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Space Mining<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Scientists and businesses are exploring a variety of methods to extract minerals from asteroids. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/science\/article\/2011-11\/how-mine-asteroid\">Here's one way<\/a>.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<h2>What\u2019s The Rush?<\/h2>\n\n<p>Michael Listner has some major qualms with the bill in its current form. It requires the President to assess the international impacts of space mining and set up a regulatory structure for it within 180 days of signing the bill into law, but has no vision beyond those 180 days. \u201cIt\u2019s a short-term bill,\u201d says Listner. \u201cI don\u2019t think it goes far enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>For example, what is the licensing process for a company that wants to mine asteroids? Although issues such as this could be addressed in the President\u2019s 180-day report, that report, Tronchetti writes, \u201cmight not be a sufficient step to fill in the gap resulting from a near-absolute absence of a national regulatory framework governing private mining activities on asteroids.\u201d He goes on:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>rather than rushing the adoption of controversial legislation dealing with extraterrestrial property rights, [the United States] should gradually develop a national regulatory framework to manage (non-governmental) activities on celestial bodies, including the establishment of technical and safety standards as well as of licensing procedures.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>\u201cThere are just too many questions,\u201d says Listner. \u201cIt conjures rights out of thin air, and has no supporting infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"642\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=H67iYfCU\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=MAhlHlCf\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=WoG6Jia2\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=-WuDlwrI\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"642\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=H67iYfCU\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=MAhlHlCf\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=WoG6Jia2\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=-WuDlwrI\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=MAhlHlCf\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Mooncolony.jpg\">Artist concept via NASA<\/a><\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Moon Colony<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Mining lunar water could pave the way to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/colonizing-moon-may-be-90-percent-cheaper-we-thought\">human colonies on the moon and Mars<\/a>. But is the Space Act of 2015 up to the task?<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>If the bill does get through the Senate, there\u2019s no guarantee that President Obama will sign it into law. Although he\u2019s supported SpaceX\u2019s commercial spaceflight ventures, the international ramifications plus Democrats\u2019 calls to discuss the implications of space mining in a committee could lead the President to veto this part of the bill. If that happens, Congress would need to drum up a two-thirds majority to override the veto.<\/p>\n\n<p>Tronchetti notes that the bill has proceeded \u201cin a rather sudden and unexpected fashion.\u201d Despite strong opposition from Democrats, the Republican-led House pushed it through without any hearings or expert testimony.<\/p>\n\n<p>But the bill may be more about gauging the reaction from the legal community than anything else, Listner says. \u201cThey could just be throwing mud at walls to see if anything sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n","teaser":"<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"632\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=N1YEM-mO\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www","ss_name":"sarahfecht","tos_name":"sarahfecht","ss_name_formatted":"sarahfecht","tos_name_formatted":"sarahfecht","is_uid":234,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2015-09-23T12:30:08Z","ds_changed":"2015-09-24T15:48:05Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2015-09-24T15:48:05Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"ts_bonnier_summary":"\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    If mankind is ever to become an interplanetary species, our outward expansion across the solar system probably can\u2019t be fueled by NASA funding alone. Why did the first humans&hellip;  <\/div>\n","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"<div class=\"primary-channel-eyebrow\"><a href=\"\/tags\/space\">Space<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2016-08-02T15:32:42.699Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_gallery_items":["0"],"sm_field_gallery_display":["gallery_none"],"sm_field_image":["http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_4x3\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=JZPLrDuz"],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"sm_field_customhtml_display":["customhtml_none"],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"tid":[201303,217301,216549,208624,203241,217302,212416,63,212918,94],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["space"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Sarah Fecht"],"tm_vid_1_names":["asteroid mining space mining space law planetary resources deep space industries property rights Space Technology editor&#039;s picks"],"spell":["Is Space Mining Legal?","<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"632\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=N1YEM-mO\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=6XObW0tB\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=AcNq6Oac\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=Hpo8UCM9\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"632\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=N1YEM-mO\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=6XObW0tB\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=AcNq6Oac\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=Hpo8UCM9\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2014\/asteroid.mining.jpg?itok=6XObW0tB\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Deep Space Industries<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Asteroid mining concept art<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Robotic asteroid mining might look like this.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>If mankind is ever to become an interplanetary species, our outward expansion across the solar system probably can\u2019t be fueled by NASA funding alone. Why did the first humans venture out of Africa? What made the Europeans sail into the unknown? What drove Americans to expand across the continent? Curiosity and an adventurous spirit, yes, but more importantly: resources--be they riches, food, or fertile farmland.<\/p>\n\n<p>Similarly, resources may be the only thing that can lure us from the comforts of Earth. Mining for lunar water could make it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/colonizing-moon-may-be-90-percent-cheaper-we-thought\">up to 90 percent cheaper to colonize the moon<\/a>. And extracting platinum and other minerals from asteroids could propel mankind to travel beyond low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n\n<p>At least two companies\u2014Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries\u2014are openly planning to <a href=\"\/tags\/asteroid-mining\">mine asteroids<\/a>. The former has already <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/asteroid-mining-test-vehicle-just-launched-space-station\">launched a simple test vehicle into low Earth orbit<\/a>, with more planned.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default float-right\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"665\" class=\"float-right\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=_HgB3i3a\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=RWBvI9vd\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=IemYfksI\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=CPA1wYhT\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"665\" class=\"float-right\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=_HgB3i3a\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=RWBvI9vd\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=IemYfksI\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=CPA1wYhT\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/arkyd-6.jpg?itok=RWBvI9vd\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Planetary Resources<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Planetary Resource's Arkyd-6 test vehicle is expected to launch in 2015 or 2016<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>It's younger sibling, Arkyd-3, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/asteroid-mining-test-vehicle-just-launched-space-station\">launched from the International Space Station<\/a> in July 2015, to test out some asteroid mining hardware.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>Both companies have a long way to go before their technologies will be able to visit an asteroid, assess what valuable resources it contains, and then <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/science\/article\/2011-11\/how-mine-asteroid\">extract those resources<\/a> and deliver them back to Earth. First the companies need to clear a major legal obstacle.<\/p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unoosa.org\/oosa\/en\/ourwork\/spacelaw\/treaties\/outerspacetreaty.html\">Outer Space Treaty<\/a>, which the U.S., Russia, and a number of other countries have signed, specifically states that nations can\u2019t own territory in space. \u201cOuter space shall be free for exploration and use by all States,\u201d the treaty says. \u201cOuter space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>But what does that mean for a private company?<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThere is no clear-cut answer as to whether [private mining in space] is legal or not,\u201d says Frans von der Dunk, a space law professor at the University of Nebraska. \u201cIt depends on your interpretation of certain rather broad statements in the Outer Space Treaty, and it depends on your particular interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>In May, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would give asteroid mining companies property rights to the minerals they extract from space. Called the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/114th-congress\/house-bill\/2262\/text\">Space Act of 2015<\/a>, the bill now awaits the Senate's decision.<\/p>\n\n<p>If the decision isn't made by the end of September or shortly thereafter, an expiring moratorium will give the Federal Aviation Administration permission to begin regulating commercial spaceflight\u2014something conservatives have wanted to postpone so that the fledgling industry could have some time to grow.<\/p>\n\n<p>Von der Dunk predicts the Senate will pass the bill by the end of October. After that, President Obama will have the opportunity to sign it into law or veto it.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The Space Act Of 2015<\/h2>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"625\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=nzmtsegR\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=h5RzWzNT\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=TD4e_ARe\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=4w0Wlgbw\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"625\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=nzmtsegR\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=h5RzWzNT\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=TD4e_ARe\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=4w0Wlgbw\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2013\/01\/crop_4.png?itok=h5RzWzNT\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Concept drawing from Deep Space Industries<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Harvesting materials from an asteroid<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>The bill (which is similar to last year's stalled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/113th-congress\/house-bill\/5063\">ASTEROIDS Act<\/a>) says that resources extracted from asteroids and other objects in space belong to the person or company who extracts them. It also would require space mining companies to \u201cavoid causing harmful interference in outer space,\u201d and allows a company to sue others who cause \u201charmful interference\u201d to space mining ventures.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIt's a very succinct act,\u201d says Von der Dunk. \u201cThat is one reason why I don't foresee many complications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Nonetheless, it\u2019s causing a bit of an uproar in the international community, says Michael Listner, lawyer and founder of the consulting firm Space Law and Policy Solutions.<\/p>\n\n<h2>International Concerns<\/h2>\n\n<p>Planetary Resources is pleased with the bill. \u201cThe SPACE Act of 2015 is a very good foundation for future asteroid resource activities,\u201d a spokesperson told <em>Popular Science<\/em>. \u201cIf the bill passed tomorrow it would explicitly state a government position that has been implied for decades. The law would provide clarity and move this entire industry ahead very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>But not everyone is enthusiastic about it. In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0265964615300102\">an article in the journal <em>Space Policy<\/em><\/a>, Fabio Tronchetti, a lawyer at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, argues that the Space Act of 2015 would violate the Outer Space Treaty. He writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>States are forbidden from extending their territorial sovereignty over outer space or any parts of it. Despite arguments claiming otherwise this prohibition also extends to private entities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>In essence, Tronchetti argues that if the U.S. passes this bill, it will confer rights to space companies that the U.S. doesn\u2019t have the power to give.<\/p>\n\n<h6>\u201cThere is no clear-cut answer as to whether mining in space is legal or not.\u201d<\/h6>\n\n<p>Tronchetti also points out that the bill\u2019s concept of \u2018harmful interference\u2019 isn\u2019t defined, and could potentially be used to create exclusion zones around mining operations. That would go against the nature of the treaty, whose goal was to make sure space remains the \u201cprovince of all mankind,\u201d open for exploration by everyone.<\/p>\n\n<p>Although von der Dunk says that even though he doesn\u2019t see anything in the current version that clearly violates international law, it could still cause concerns overseas.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cRussia and China might consider using this as another example of the economic aggression of the U.S. and going ahead of the international law,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n<p>The space mining debate probably should have started with international discussions, Tronchetti and von der Dunk agree, before going to the House and Senate.<\/p>\n\n<p>But international consensus has been hard to come by in the past. The 1979 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unoosa.org\/oosa\/en\/ourwork\/spacelaw\/treaties\/intromoon-agreement.html\">Moon Agreement<\/a>, for example, would have limited mining in space to international governing bodies. Over the years, 16 nations have signed on to the treaty, but none of the major space-faring nations have agreed to it.<\/p>\n\n<p>Von der Dunk says it\u2019s too late for those discussions now. \u201cIt would take years and lead to a watered-down version. We're probably going to go ahead with this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default float-right\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"855\" class=\"float-right\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=mcYqRcS0\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=rbqfCw8D\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=kamVwDRD\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=sgNjkREW\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"855\" class=\"float-right\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=mcYqRcS0\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=rbqfCw8D\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=kamVwDRD\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=sgNjkREW\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/import\/2013\/images\/2011\/11\/SpaceMining_KevinHand.jpg?itok=rbqfCw8D\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p>Kevin Hand<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Space Mining<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Scientists and businesses are exploring a variety of methods to extract minerals from asteroids. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/science\/article\/2011-11\/how-mine-asteroid\">Here's one way<\/a>.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<h2>What\u2019s The Rush?<\/h2>\n\n<p>Michael Listner has some major qualms with the bill in its current form. It requires the President to assess the international impacts of space mining and set up a regulatory structure for it within 180 days of signing the bill into law, but has no vision beyond those 180 days. \u201cIt\u2019s a short-term bill,\u201d says Listner. \u201cI don\u2019t think it goes far enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>For example, what is the licensing process for a company that wants to mine asteroids? Although issues such as this could be addressed in the President\u2019s 180-day report, that report, Tronchetti writes, \u201cmight not be a sufficient step to fill in the gap resulting from a near-absolute absence of a national regulatory framework governing private mining activities on asteroids.\u201d He goes on:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>rather than rushing the adoption of controversial legislation dealing with extraterrestrial property rights, [the United States] should gradually develop a national regulatory framework to manage (non-governmental) activities on celestial bodies, including the establishment of technical and safety standards as well as of licensing procedures.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>\u201cThere are just too many questions,\u201d says Listner. \u201cIt conjures rights out of thin air, and has no supporting infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-default full-width\"><img width=\"1000\" height=\"642\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=H67iYfCU\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=MAhlHlCf\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=WoG6Jia2\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=-WuDlwrI\" src=\"\/sites\/all\/modules\/bonnier\/sandcastle\/images\/placeholder.gif\" \/><noscript><img width=\"1000\" height=\"642\" class=\"full-width\" typeof=\"foaf:Image\" alt=\"\" data-smsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/small_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=H67iYfCU\" data-medsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=MAhlHlCf\" data-lgsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/large_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=WoG6Jia2\" data-xlsrc=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/xl_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=-WuDlwrI\" src=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/medium_1x_\/public\/mooncolony.jpg?itok=MAhlHlCf\" \/><\/noscript><div class=\"caption-wrapper indent\" style=\"\">\n  <div class=\"field-credit\">\n    <p><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Mooncolony.jpg\">Artist concept via NASA<\/a><\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-title\">\n    <p>Moon Colony<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    <p>Mining lunar water could pave the way to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/colonizing-moon-may-be-90-percent-cheaper-we-thought\">human colonies on the moon and Mars<\/a>. But is the Space Act of 2015 up to the task?<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>If the bill does get through the Senate, there\u2019s no guarantee that President Obama will sign it into law. Although he\u2019s supported SpaceX\u2019s commercial spaceflight ventures, the international ramifications plus Democrats\u2019 calls to discuss the implications of space mining in a committee could lead the President to veto this part of the bill. If that happens, Congress would need to drum up a two-thirds majority to override the veto.<\/p>\n\n<p>Tronchetti notes that the bill has proceeded \u201cin a rather sudden and unexpected fashion.\u201d Despite strong opposition from Democrats, the Republican-led House pushed it through without any hearings or expert testimony.<\/p>\n\n<p>But the bill may be more about gauging the reaction from the legal community than anything else, Listner says. \u201cThey could just be throwing mud at walls to see if anything sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n","asteroid mining space mining space law planetary resources deep space industries property rights Space Technology editor&#039;s picks","Sarah Fecht","\n  <div class=\"field-body\">\n    If mankind is ever to become an interplanetary species, our outward expansion across the solar system probably can\u2019t be fueled by NASA funding alone. Why did the first humans&hellip;  <\/div>\n","<div class=\"primary-channel-eyebrow\"><a href=\"\/tags\/space\">Space<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[94],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"sm_field_subtitle":["A controversial bill would give companies the right to own natural resources in space, and it may pass in the Senate by the end of September\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[201303,217301,216549,208624,203241,217302,212416,63,212918],"im_vid_2":[94],"sm_vid_Authors":["Sarah Fecht"],"im_vid_1":[201303,217301,216549,208624,203241,217302,212416,63,212918],"sm_field_video_display":["video_none"],"sm_vid_Tags":["asteroid mining","space mining","space law","planetary resources","deep space industries","property rights","Space","Technology","editor&#039;s picks"]}]]