…when aliens get here and start taking pictures of our planet to try and decide if they want to take it over? Will they first need to (possibly) apply for a license as well?

The letter does not claim that the US has jurisdiction over everyone. It clearly is referring to US-based teams.

What is totally stupid about the announcement is that it only applies to taking pictures of the earth. Use of frequencies and bandwidth issues are licensed elsewhere. They simply don’t want anything that might possibly be competition for their services.

Use of weather data produced largely with taxpayer money is still a tightly controlled industry based on silly laws that predate the Internet. Obviously the industry representative are using their NOAA mouthpieces to assert their divine right to control information from any conceivable secondary source.

@Matt – The link you gave doesn’t work. I read the policy at the link Mike gave in the original article, and the second part of the policy, “SUBCHAPTER II – LICENSING OF PRIVATE REMOTE SENSING SPACE SYSTEMS” clearly requires licensing of remote sensing systems.

My take on the reason behind it is that it isn’t for controlling radio transmissions. I think it is more for preventing private spy satellites. In fact, section 5621-a-2 specifically says that authority is limited only to the remote sensing operations of the system. Section 5656 specifically says that the operator must go to the FCC for radio transmission licensing. I’m not sure whether one can avoid the FCC licensing by siting the ground station outside the U.S., but that probably would just change the radio licensing requirement to that of the country in which the ground station was sited.

The first licensing requirement stated in the policy, in section 5622-b-1, is that the system must operate in such manner as to preserve the national security of the U.S. That’s why I think the main point of the licensing is preventing private spy satellites.

Of course, this applies only to people subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S., so it can’t control spy satellites launched by foreign organizations, but, given that many corporations in the U.S. wouldn’t give a second thought about undermining national security if they could make a buck at it, perhaps a policy like this is justified.

Assuming I’m right that the intent of the policy is to prevent private spy satellites, I imagine the Lunar X-prize participants would have no problem obtaining such a license, since I’m pretty sure any remote sensing they are doing is nowhere near the resolution that would pose a spying threat. I haven’t looked into the matter further to see whether there are any costs involved in obtaining such a license, so I can’t say whether this licensing is an unreasonable burden on the Lunar X-prize participants.

Of course, a bureaucrat who wants to be difficult could make problems for the Lunar X-prize people, regardless of the merits of their applications. But the charitable way to look at the letter that was sent out is that they simply wanted to point out the licensing requirement and the fact that it can take several months to process the application so that none of the Lunar X-prize participants got caught in a time bind due to late application for the license.

A helpful bureaucrat? I dare say some such do exist.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080530_004991.html

Above link, begin reading from paragraph 8.

Perhaps they’re worried that after it gets up there, it will find no indication that man ever walked on the moon, and that the moon landing was just a hoax?

A simple way to bypass this may be to get an amateur radio operator (Radio Ham)on the team. That way they automatically have licensed frequencies to use, and they will get massive support from the community.