General Atomics

General Atomics is a Swiss corporation under American control whose attempt to claim the Moon helped establish the Larkin Decision. In Jubal Harshaw’s account, the case turns corporate expansion into a question of planetary law: a corporation cannot own a world, but the people who maintain an occupation may be recognized as sovereign. That precedent becomes the basis for arguing that Valentine Michael Smith, alone on Mars, is both a sovereign nation and the planet’s owner.

Corporate Claim to the Moon

General Atomics entered a contest over lunar settlement after earlier expeditions had failed to establish a lasting human presence. When the United States and the Commonwealth prepared a joint colonizing mission under the nominal sponsorship of the World Federation of Free States, and Russia mounted a competing effort, the corporation moved first. It launched its own expedition from an island leased from Ecuador. Its men remained on the Moon when the Federation vessel arrived, followed by the Russian one.

The corporation claimed the Moon, but the claim exposed a conflict between corporate property and planetary sovereignty. The Federation could not simply dismiss General Atomics without creating a diplomatic crisis, particularly with Russia watching the dispute. The Federation High Court therefore ruled that a corporate person—a legal fiction—could not own a planet.

The Larkin Decision

The court instead recognized the flesh-and-blood men who had maintained the lunar occupation: Larkin and his associates. They became a sovereign nation and were admitted into the Federation. The settlement also included concessions to General Atomics and its subsidiary, Lunar Enterprises, distributing benefits among the parties without granting the corporation ownership of the Moon.

The outcome was a compromise rather than a resolution that satisfied everyone. At the time, the Federation High Court lacked the authority to impose an uncontested settlement, and the negotiated terms helped make the decision politically workable. The resulting rules for planetary colonization were intended to prevent bloodshed. Harshaw presents the fact that World War Three did not arise from conflict over space travel as evidence of the precedent’s practical effect; the Larkin Decision became an established part of planetary law.

Application to Mars

Harshaw explains the precedent to Jill Boardman while discussing Smith’s financial and legal position. Its relevance is that Smith, as the sole human occupant of Mars, can be treated under the same legal reasoning as Larkin and his associates: corporate claims cannot simply absorb a planet, while the people maintaining an occupation may acquire sovereign standing. Harshaw states that, under Federation law, Smith is himself a sovereign nation and the sole owner of Mars.

The precedent thus reaches beyond General Atomics’ lunar venture. A corporate attempt to claim a world produced a legal framework that Harshaw applies to an individual on Mars, transforming Smith’s apparent isolation into a claim to sovereignty. The episode also makes the decision’s compromise structure consequential: planetary rights are settled not through an abstract rule alone, but through the recognition of occupants and negotiated political arrangements.