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Space & Astronomy

Trump signs order to mine space resources

By T.K. Randall
April 13, 2020 · Comment icon 16 comments

Trump has set his sights on off-world resource acquisition. Image Credit: NASA/Denise Watt
The US President has signed a new executive order to support the acquisition of resources in space.
The asteroids that pass us by on a regular basis might not seem particularly valuable, but inside many of these spacefaring rocks there lies a fortune in gold, platinum and other minerals that could actually make space mining an extremely viable commercial venture.

The Moon and Mars, too, are known to contain significant natural resources that could prove invaluable to the first settlers building permanant manned outposts on these worlds.

Now in a new bid to support the mining of these resources, President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order establishing official US policy with regard to the acquisition of materials off-world.
"Supportive policy regarding the recovery and use of space resources is important to the creation of a stable and predictable investment environment for commercial space innovators and entrepreneurs, and it is vital to the long-term sustainability of human exploration and development of the Moon, Mars, and other destinations," the executive order reads.

"Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view space as a global commons."

Russia meanwhile has condemned the move, claiming that "attempts to expropriate outer space and aggressive plans to actually take over other planets" deter international cooperation.

"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," said Roscosmos' Sergei Savelyev.

Source: Space.com | Comments (16)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #7 Posted by RoofGardener 4 years ago
Disintegrating the moon - and allowing its shattered pieces to fall down to earth - would be a CATASTROPHE.  ..... for the Cheese industry, which would see a surplus-led collapse in Global Cheese Prices ! 
Comment icon #8 Posted by HSlim 4 years ago
Yes.  The POTUS is in fact human garbage.
Comment icon #9 Posted by HSlim 4 years ago
....DO NOT GIVE HIM ANY IDEAS
Comment icon #10 Posted by micahc 4 years ago
you should see the uniforms space marshall bone spurs is selecting for the miners. 
Comment icon #11 Posted by Seti42 4 years ago
The most harmless thing Trump has done as POTUS, easily.
Comment icon #12 Posted by Myles 4 years ago
It's funny how this is ruffling people's feathers.    I don't recall people being as upset in 2015 when Obama signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R. 2262) into law.  This law recognizes the right of U.S. citizens to own asteroid resources they obtain and encourages the commercial exploration and utilization of resources from asteroids.
Comment icon #13 Posted by Piney 4 years ago
 
Comment icon #14 Posted by Robotic Jew 4 years ago
That's exactly the scene I was thinking of!
Comment icon #15 Posted by Nnicolette 4 years ago
Why is Putin upset about this? He shouldn't be threatened by people that aren't him exploring space, or possessive over asteroids that he wasn't using. Sounds like jealousy, just plain fear of someone else doing better. 
Comment icon #16 Posted by DanL 4 years ago
Russia is our current taxi service and the only way to get a man into high orbit. There is no telling what that ride costs. Is it any wonder that Russia would prefer that the US say dependent on them for space trips. We as a species will either move off this insane trap or like the dinosaurs, we will get wiped out the next time Mother Nature gets tired of the children. Trump will have to fight the Socialist branch of Democrats tooth and nail to get the US back into space. Kennedy got us going towards the stars... and then Johnson killed that dream. This is another chance. It may be our last. Y... [More]


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