if it landed in an underdeveloped 3rd or 2nd world country?
Here’s the sitch: Assuming that there is no doubt that this is alien in nature and contains some alien technology. Scientists discovered it hurtling through space and has been tracking it for several months on a collision course for Earth. It looks like an alien spacecraft, small, but with technology. Pod-sized. Superman jokes aside, it exhibits signs of advance technology, maybe its damaged but it is clearly moving with no signs of exterior propulsion. It doesn’t look like there are any life forms in it, for the sake of argument let’s say we know there are none. And it crashes in a country like Peru or Nigeria or Sri Lanka, some place small and not one of the big political powers.
I think a good case can be made for the US to go get this spacecraft by force. Its got alien technology, we have one of the more advanced legion of scientists at our disposal, including the money and technology to try and make sense of it. I know there will probably be a lot of people clamoring for us to go get it. I can see it as being spun where people will try to say we have “protect” it from the likes of China or North Korea or Russia, whom we will say have no moral qualms about going in there and killing everyone for that tech if necessary.
Whoever our president is will be getting a lot of pressure to make contact with the aliens so they see us as representatives of Earth, if and when they decide to retrieve their pod. I’m sure that at the very least, every other country will try to cozy up to this country if not outright bribe them to have first dibs on whatever tech they decide to outsource for study.
Barring that, I’m not sure how far we’ll go. I can see ideologically different presidents deciding to respect the country’s sovereignty or go in guns blazing. I’m sure there will be plenty of propaganda for doing so but the real reason will be simply that this tech would be too valuable to be left at the hands of a small, undefensive country that our political opponents like China or Russia can possibly steal.
Btw, this was a big part of the plot of the South Park episode “Starvin’ Marvin in Space”. A Marklar spaceship lands in Ethiopia, and a local child finds it, flying it away at the last minute while being chased by a CIA boarding party.
If there is anything capable of communication on board the craft, then everyone and their dog will try to communicate with it, and it’ll end up choosing who, if anyone, gets any information.
If there isn’t anything to communicate with, then the US or one of the other major powers would go in with permission of the country it crashed in. The diplomatic situation is such that some major power or another would inevitably end up with that permission. And if that power is someone other than us, then it becomes a matter of us vs. them if we try to take it by force, with the minor nation where it crashed being utterly irrelevant.
The most likely outcome of course is it crashing in international waters, which would set off the mother of all races to get there first.
But if it lands in another country I guess it depends on what we think is there and how much we’re willing to fight for it. Or pay for it. If I’m a third world country, there probably isn’t much in an advanced alien ship I could make use of, so the money would be more valuable, and if the tech has civilian uses it eventually comes back to us anyway.
Also, try to imagine Victorian England getting hold of an Iphone. Their scientists would barely even know where to begin analyzing such a thing. It could be that anything we found on an alien ship wouldn’t even be useful to a superpower for generations. Just sell it to the Japanese(they’d probably pay the most for it) and be done with it.
I think if it could be grabbed quick and taken away without bloodshed I would feel better with it in the hands of a western power. Maybe taken to Geneva to be studied by the U.N. to be diplomatic. But, they could study it just as well if it was in the U.S.
If it would require killing to take it then it would be a terrible idea. Not the best way to introduce ourselves to a new life form. Put a large amount of military power in the area as protection. We don’t have to go into details if it’s protection from the aliens, or to protect the aliens, or keep it out of the hands of others.
I would love it if aliens set up diplomatic relations with Earth through dogs.