Trump signs ‘space order’ paving way for US to mine Moon and Mars for minerals and water

I'm just glad someone is finally doing something for the billionaires.

a reply to: peck420

The problem is the moon isn't as stable as people think it is. We can mine in Mars just like Earth, but we can't actually mine the moon because of possibility of internal collapse. The moon should become observatory and spacecraft launch pads for Planetary defence. After Mars we can go mine Asteroids. Mining asteroids are fine. But, all Spacecrafts need biological lifeform protocols for defence against outer space diseases and Parasitian(yes, I just created a new word) creatures. We don't have Hollywood horror movies for a reason such as aliens.

Call the "Act of Prevention".

It was my understanding that anyone can exploit lunar resources; you just can’t claim any part of the moon. I don’t think near earth objects are subject to any international treaties. If I’m not mistaken, you could claim one if you can reach it, though you’d probably have to do things like survey it, perform mineral assays, emplacement claim markers and return samples to Earth.

Regardless of whether or not you can claim a NEO, there’s no legal reason why you couldn’t mine one and bring its materials to Earth or Earth orbit. Perhaps the UN might claim a share of the proceeds, I don’t know.

Water is the most likely extraterrestrial resource for initial in situ-exploitation. It’s incredibly useful for space operations — you get hydrogen and oxygen for fuel and oxidizer; ice for radiation and ballistic protection; oxygen for breathing; and water for drinking, cleaning, etc. And you wouldn’t have to bring it at incredible expense from Earth. It seems to be more common at the lunar South Pole and in NEOs and possibly the Martian moons than was previously thought. It would be much easier to extract and transport water than probably any other ET resource, and it could provide fuel and oxidizer to the spacecraft taking it to Earth orbit.

As for mining minerals on Mars, only people living on Mars could benefit since the cost to transport them to Earth would be absurdly high. Now the Martian moons Deimos and Phobos are a different story. They would be no harder to reach than many NEOs, i.e., easier to reach and return from than the moon. The only problem is it takes years to reach them and return to Earth.

Trump signs ‘space order’ paving way for US to mine Moon and Mars for minerals and water

If trump can't even handle the bat flu outbreak, it might take awhile till we get to mine the moon and Mars.

I don't understand. Have we learnt nothing as a society? We don't 'own' the Moon or space. It's not ours to take ffs!!!

a reply to: LookingAtMars

a reply to: swinggal

We are only going to mine it, not take it.

Gonna need lots of rare earth minerals in the future. Not to mention other rare elements that could be found out there.

a reply to: Jamie2018

Do you have any evidence for your beliefs other than a long debunked pile of manure from a mentally unstable cab driver or is it all just blind faith?