to be excluded from the proposed agreement. First, it is not in a physical sense an attribute of the Moon. Second, it is much less measurable than either rocks or orbital patterns because of its vast, unlimited, inexhaustible, and renewable characteristics. Thus, at the present the trends away from the res communis principle in favor of the common heritage of mankind concept have relevance only to the indicated fairly tangible resources and in specifically identifiable spatial contexts. Solar energy at geostationary orbital level must still be considered as controlled by the res communis principle. Nonetheless, the extended Moon Treaty negotiations clearly indicate an expanding consensus favoring a wide sharing of the resources of the space environment and the benefits derivable from such resources. It should nonetheless be noted that many of the provisions of the proposed Moon Treaty are restatements of principles found in the 1967 Treaty or are derivable from them. 4.3 The 1967 Principles Treaty and High Altitude Solar Energy At the present time, to the extent that international law deals with the gathering and transmission of high altitude solar energy, the 1967 Principles Treaty applies the res communis principle to such energy. The Treaty was based on the belief that mankind should be able to derive benefits from the use of the space environment and its resources. Although the terms of the Treaty do not in all instances contain common assurances relating to the three elements of the space environment, namely, outer space, the Moon, and other celestial bodies, nonetheless, the purpose of the Treaty is to facilitate activities by man in the
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