US President Donald Trump signed a new executive order allowing like-minded nations to come together to support the idea of space mining and privatisation on celestial bodies in space including Moon.
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The newly passed executive order allows American companies and citizens to mine and use resources from the celestial bodies in space. The order also seeks support from countries with similar interests in the field of space. Till now Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, and China have welcomed the idea of space mining.
Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons. United States of America
#DestinationSpace: Last year President Trump established the U.S. Space Force to defend America’s galactic capabilities. Here's how much it's costing the country pic.twitter.com/J2z3XFALTA — Reuters (@Reuters) April 6, 2020
Russia’s Disapproval Russian space agency Roscosmos criticized the order of space mining. It said that the U.S is trying to introduce the policy of Colonialism behind the curtains of privatization and lunar mining. Russia compares Trump’s order as a move of colonialism and added that “there have already been examples in history when one country decided to start seizing territories in its own interests and everyone remembers how that turned out.” As no military bases are allowed to be set up on moon or space, the US is concerned about the security of its assets working in space on resource mining. The US and China may agree to have a space frontier force.
Curiopedia
Emblem for the US Space Force bears an uncanny resemblance to the insignia from sci-fi TV series “Star Trek”.
Planetary Resources Inc. was the first company to bring the concept of space mining in commercial usage in 2012. The financially struggling company was bought by a blockchain software technology company called ConsenSys, inc. in 2018.
The OSIRIS-REx is an asteroid study and sample collecting mission by NASA. It plans to return with 60g of a sample from a near-earth asteroid after examining it. The whole mission is 7 years in duration and will cost up to $1 Billion.
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