A brewing war to set a mining base in space is likely to see China and Russia joining forces to keep the US increasing attempts to dominate extra-terrestrial commerce at bay, experts warn.
The Trump Administration took an active interest in space, announcing that America would聽聽by 2024 and creating the聽聽as the newest branch of the US military.
It also proposed global legal framework for mining on the moon, called the Artemis Accords, encouraging citizens to mine the Earth鈥檚 natural satellite and other celestial bodies with commercial purposes.
The directive classified outer space as a 鈥渓egally and physically unique domain of human activity鈥� instead of a 鈥済lobal commons,鈥澛爌aving the way for mining the moon without聽any sort of international treaty.
Spearheaded by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Artemis Accords by Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy and the United Emirates.
鈥淯nfortunately, the Trump Administration exacerbated a national security threat and risked the economic opportunity聽it hoped to secure in outer space聽by failing to engage Russia or China as potential partners,鈥� says Elya Taichman, former legislative director for then-Republican Michelle Lujan Grisham.
鈥淚nstead, the Artemis Accords have driven China and Russia toward聽increased cooperation聽in space out of fear and necessity,鈥� .
Russia鈥檚 space agency Roscosmos was the first to speak up, likening the policy to colonialism.
鈥淭here have already been examples in history when one country decided to start seizing territories in its interest 鈥� everyone remembers what came of it,鈥� Roscosmos鈥� deputy general director for international cooperation, Sergey Saveliev, said at the time.
China, which made history in 2019 by becoming the聽聽to land a probe on the far side of the Moon, chose a different approach. Since the Artemis Accords were first announced, Beijing has approached Russia to .
President Xi Jinping has also he made sure , which happened in December 2020, more than 50 years after the US reached the lunar surface.
The next Wild West?
China has historically been excluded from the US-led international order in space. It is not a partner in the International Space Station (ISS) program, and a US legislative provision has limited NASA鈥檚 ability to cooperate with it in space since 2011.
鈥淎merica and China should cooperate in space,鈥� say . 鈥淚f the US managed to coordinate with the Soviet Union on space policy during the Cold War, it can find a way to cooperate with China now,鈥� they note.
Slaughter, a former director of policy planning in the US State Department from 2009 to 2011, believes that President Joe Biden鈥檚 team should distance from Trump鈥檚 accords and instead pursue a new course within .
鈥淏iden can restore some of America鈥檚 global legitimacy by working to establish a multilateral framework, negotiated with all relevant parties that protects areas of common interest while granting internationally accepted commercial opportunities,鈥� Slaughter and Lawrence wrote.
It will not be an easy task, they say, but a necessary one. 鈥淲ithout an international framework that includes all major spacefaring countries, the moon could become the next Wild West.鈥�
The race is on. It has been for a while. So much so that NASA to launch an unmanned mission around the moon in 2021, followed by a crewed moon flyby in 2023, then a lunar landing in 2024.聽
NASA plans to build a permanent moon-orbiting base called the Gateway, similar to the ISS. From there, the agency hopes to build a base on the lunar surface, where it can mine the resources required to fly the first astronauts to Mars.
Russia has been pursuing plans in recent years聽to return to the moon, potentially travelling further into outer space.
搁辞蝉肠辞蝉尘辞蝉听聽plans to establish a long-term base on the moon over the next two decades, while President Vladimir Putin has聽聽to launch a mission to Mars 鈥渧ery soon.鈥�
The US, Russia and China are not the first nor the only nations to jump on board the lunar mining train.
尝耻虫别尘产辞耻谤驳,听聽to set its eyes on the possibility of mining celestial bodies,聽聽to boost exploration and commercial utilization of resources from Near Earth Objects.
Unlike NASA, LSA does not carry out research or launches. Its purpose is to accelerate collaborations between economic project leaders of the space sector, investors and other partners.
The tiny European nation announced in November plans to create a European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC), in charge of laying the foundations for exploiting extra-terrestrial resources.
Luxembourg is also supporting a program to begin extracting resources from the Moon聽by 2025.
The mission, in charge of the European Space Agency in partnership with ArianeGroup, plans to extract waste-free nuclear energy thought to be worth trillions of dollars.
Trillion-dollar market
Both China and India have also floated ideas about extracting Helium-3 from the Earth鈥檚 natural satellite. Beijing has already landed on the moon twice in the 21st聽century, with more missions to follow.
In Canada, most initiatives have come from the private sector. One of the most touted was Northern Ontario-based聽Deltion Innovations partnership with Moon Express, the first American private space exploration firm to have been聽聽to travel beyond Earth鈥檚 orbit.
Space ventures in the works include聽, track space debris, build the聽, and billionaire Elon Musk鈥檚 own plan for an unmanned mission to the red planet.
Musk鈥檚 SpaceX, founded in 2004, has launched its Falcon 9 boosters more than 100 times, launched the world鈥檚 most powerful operational rocket 鈥� Falcon Heavy 鈥� three times, and transported astronauts to the International Space Station.
Geologists, as well as emerging companies, such as聽, a firm pioneering the space mining industry, believe asteroids are packed with iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth, making up a market valued聽.
On December 5, 2020, a metallic asteroid 140 miles wide and worth an estimated $10,000 quadrillion made its closest approach to our planet.
鈥淲ith NASA and other companies investing in and developing nuclear power for use in space travel and colonization, the reality of mining asteroids is closer than ever before,鈥� .
With proven successful fusion energy experiments under their belt, US Nuclear and Magneto-Inertial Fusion Technologies (MIFTI) believe they are only a few years away from building the world鈥檚 first fusion power generator.
Fusion power releases up to four times as much energy as fission, and uses fuel that is lightweight, low-cost, safe, and sustainable.
A spacecraft with fusion-powered propulsion systems could reach the asteroid belt in as little as seven months. According to Goldstein, it could be powerful enough to transport the asteroid to an earth orbit where it would be much more efficient to mine and transport these valuable resources to earth.