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Set in this modern time, NASA sent a team of astronauts made up of different races and sexes to the Moon.

Their directives are to setup a "campfire" and perform a series of "moonwalk" during their 7 days 8 nights tour, however the unexpected misfortune befall the crews during their third day.

One of the crew suddenly went mad and stabbed the rest of the members in their sleep ending their life, this murderer also cut off all communications to mission control on Earth.

However this person uploaded the horrible acts on YouTube and other social media, definitely an unsound mind.

The families and friends of the victims gets winds of it and want the gov to bring the murderer to justice, NASA must do something to appease these angry mob.

This event occurred outside any known jurisdictions so how do any authority proceeds to settle this issue do they issue warrant of arrest or search and destroy?

Good answer means the justice system should offer the murderer a trial on Earth and excellence answer do away the inadequate and flawed systems whatever that means.

user6760
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  • Like user23614 wrote, if nobody on Earth does anything, the issue should resolve itself within about a week (possibly slightly longer, but hardly more than two to three weeks) when the lander runs out of oxygen and CO2 scrubbers, if not power before then; compare Apollo 13. Would the mob settle for what effectively amounts to a death sentence with no means of appeal? Keep in mind the cost of, and time needed for, going to the moon; even if there is a spacecraft fully fueled and ready to be launched at a moment's notice, which there won't be, it'll still take a few days just to get to the moon. – user Oct 04 '15 at 12:52
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's asking about the actions of an entity, in this case the authorities. The actions of an individual being are considered off-topic on Worldbuilding; I think that the same logic applies here to classify this question as off-topic. – HDE 226868 Oct 04 '15 at 20:37
  • I vaguely remember a question about jurisdiction on the ISS over at Space Exploration.SE. I believe the answer is that the member states have signed a treaty detailing the jurisdiction(s). It is safe to assume that a similar treaty would exist for any multi-national space mission, and that its contents would be similar. – Jörg W Mittag Oct 04 '15 at 23:19
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    In general, you can try anybody anywhere for anything as long as the court assumes responsibility. Whether or not someone cares, is a different matter, though. For example, Belgium assumes universal jurisdiction over any War Crime anywhere, anytime, by anybody, against anybody, regardless of whether crime, weapon, location, perpetrator, victim, or anything else have any relationship to Belgium or not. However, as long as you don't travel to Belgium (or any country with an extradition treaty that includes this particular law), you can be sentenced as long as you want. – Jörg W Mittag Oct 04 '15 at 23:26
  • It's interesting to me that instead of, "Under what jurisdiction could crimes on the moon be tried?", this question has an eerily specific and gruesome description of one possible crime that could be committed on the moon. – Todd Wilcox Oct 05 '15 at 01:36
  • @ToddWilcox Well, your example question should be answered quite readily by Jurisdiction over crime in space over on [space.se]. – user Oct 07 '15 at 19:19

6 Answers6

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Best solution: DO NOTHING!

why? because how long will that psycho survive on the moon? Definitely not long enough for our institutions to even begin the investigation. And after he's dead, there's nobody to trial, end of the story.

New
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Since the vessel on the moon is owned by the United States and US citizens were harmed, there is a very good precedent that the murderer would be tried in US courts and serve a sentence in US facilities. There is a very long history of laws covering crimes on the high seas of Earth. All it would take is for one judge to interpret "seas" as "the seas of outer-space" to extend a well-establish and well understood body of law to crimes committed in orbit or on other worlds.

Prosecution of crimes committed in international waters can be prosecuted by the country of origin for the vessel, the nation where the victim or attacker are citizens of or the US will just do it anyway.

Ultimately, resolution of the situation depends on the murderer reestablishing radio contact before their food, water and air supplies run out. If radio contact doesn't come back then the murderer will just die there as working with Ground Control is essential for the safe return of any mission. No space craft developed by 2015 can contain all the information/compute ability required to successfully lift-off, orbit, execute its mission, then deorbit and be rescued.

Should the murderer reestablish contact and manage to get themselves home, they would be tried according to the laws of the United States as the US owns the vessel on which the crime was committed.

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Trial in absentia.

The murderer will die soon anyway, but trial in absentia can appease the mob. Legally the government can prosecute the crimes against own citizens commited abroad.

Community
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Anixx
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The Government needs to appease the mob. The perpetrator is mentally ill so there is a humanitarian element as well.

The best solution is for NASA to appear to be organising a moon mission. However these things cannot be done instantly, and given the limitations in boosting food and water to the moon anything that takes more than 2 weeks to launch isn't going to be worthwhile. As soon as the perpetrator can be pronounced dead, the mission can be called off.

user23614
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Perhaps he can be tried by his employed country who sent him to the moon, and who he is probably responsible to report back to, at the very least he broke a contract with them. Just wanted to point to an interesting video on a similar topic who owns the moon

tzviki
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Here's the thing. Since the murder occurred outside any known jurisdictions and the person cannot be charged. Whatever other people do to that murderer on moon is also outside any known jurisdiction and cannot be deemed legal/illegal. So if earthlies send a seek and destroy mission, it is also perfectly OK and if they capture him/her and bring back to the earth to be tried in a court, that is also fine.

Remember, no matter where you committed a crime, once you enter the region of the victim, you are under that jurisdiction. Hence when the murderer is brought to earth to any of the victim's countries, he/she can be tried for murder.

There's no legal discrepancy in the process.

Youstay Igo
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  • You are also bound by the law of your own country, and many laws also apply to what you do elsewhere; I'd expect that's also the case for murder. So even if you were in a country where murder was definitely and without question legal, you'd still be bound by the law of your own country that says you may not murder, and if you do murder in that country, you can be prosecuted as soon as you return home. – celtschk Oct 04 '15 at 12:11
  • True and agreed. But ... that leaves a legal hole for the murderer in case he given up the citizenship of his country before committing the murder. He is can be no longer charged under a legislation that he doesn't belong to, anymore. – Youstay Igo Oct 04 '15 at 12:15
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    How do you give up your citizenship while you are on the moon? It's not as if there were any embassy up there … BTW, if he did at least some of his murders inside the capsule, he'd be bound by the law of the USA (because the NASA operates the capsule, and thus US law applies, similar to how it is handled on international ships). Actually thinking about it, the very same rules should apply as when murdering in international waters. – celtschk Oct 04 '15 at 12:21
  • You can give your citizenship before going to the moon though, specially if you have murder in mind ;) – Youstay Igo Oct 04 '15 at 15:13