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NASA announced Thursday that it plans to buy lunar soil from a commercial company, an effort that the agency’s top official said aims to set a precedent for the transfer of ownership of extraterrestrial material and stimulate a market that collects resources from bodies in the entire solar system.
The initiative is starting slowly, but NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Thursday that it could lead to companies mining lunar soil for water ice, precious metals and other resources.
“We are interested in buying some lunar soil commercially,” Bridenstine said Thursday in a virtual presentation at the Secure World Foundation Space Sustainability Summit. “So we want a commercial company to go to the moon, mine some lunar soil and then … NASA can take possession of it.”
“We are buying the regolith, but we are really doing it to show that it can be done, that the resources extracted from the moon are in fact owned by the people who invest their sweat, their treasure and their capital in it. effort, ”Bridenstine said.
NASA’s effort to buy lunar soil from a commercial company has its roots in a law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in 2015, Bridenstine said. The law allows private entities to extract, possess and exploit water, minerals and other materials collected from the moon.
Bridenstine said NASA’s goal of fostering a commercial market for moon mining complies with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, an international agreement ratified by 110 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Russia.
The Outer Space Treaty says: “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
Bridenstine said NASA believes in the Outer Space Treaty, but NASA wants to “allow a normalization process” to show that extraterrestrial resources can be mined and possessed.
“We believe … that we cannot appropriate the moon for national sovereignty,” he said. “And that is absolutely not what we intend to do.
“But we believe that we can extract and use the resources of the moon, just as we can extract and use tuna from the ocean,” Bridenstine said. “We do not own the ocean. But if you apply your hard work, your work and your investment to harvesting tuna from the ocean, you can own the tuna from the ocean, and that becomes a very valuable resource for humanity. “
“So the question is, is it possible to have property rights over the resources extracted without appropriating the moon or other celestial bodies for national sovereignty? And I think the answer is overwhelmingly yes. “
Through the Artemis program, NASA plans to get astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972. Last year, the Trump administration ordered NASA to land a crew near the Moon’s south pole before the end of 2024, four years prior to NASA’s previous program for returning astronauts to the lunar surface.
NASA wants the Artemis program to lead to a more enduring human presence on the moon than the Apollo program, which ended in the 1970s. For the Artemis program to last, NASA says crews or robots will eventually need to extract and use resources, such as ice water, from the moon, rather than bringing all required materials from Earth.
“How do we create a sustainable program? We need to use ice water, hundreds of millions of tons of ice water on the moon, ”Bridenstine said. “It’s air to breathe, it’s water to drink,” and it can also be turned into rocket fuel, she said.
“So all this is available in hundreds of millions of tons at the south pole of the moon, we need to be able to use it as a resource,” he said.
Precious metals can also be mined from the moon, along with helium-3, which could be used as an energy source.
Bridenstine characterized the issue of extraterrestrial mining as non-partisan, but the exploitation of resources from other planetary bodies has raised concerns.
“Advancing resource extraction without explicitly stating how we plan to make the future in space different from the past on Earth is a recipe for repeating a shameful and environmentally destructive history,” tweeted Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society.
Clive Neal, a lunar scientist at the University of Notre Dame, expressed his support for NASA’s new lunar soil initiative. But he tweeted that environmental impact statements, a standard part for many construction projects in the United States, should be an early step for proposals to extract and use lunar resources.
“There is no risk of companies taking the moon out and ruining it until closer to the year 2100, because there are no valuable resources on the moon that you can sell on Earth,” tweeted Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida whose Research experience includes planetary soil sampling. “You can get everything on Earth a million times cheaper.
“Second, we don’t have the technology to mine the moon on a large scale,” Metzger added. “Technological development * only * will likely take 30 to 40 years for a large-scale lunar mining company to be economically viable. The key will be to reduce the need for humans to be repairing broken robots. “
President Trump signed an executive order in April outlining a policy that the United States does not view space as a “global common good. The order reinforced the 2015 law signed by President Obama that gives American citizens and businesses the right to extract and exploit resources drawn from other agencies in space.
The policy goes against the 1979 Moon Treaty, which states that the moon and its natural resources are the “common heritage of mankind.” The Moon Treaty adds that an international framework is needed to regulate the exploitation of lunar resources “when such exploitation is about to be feasible.”
But only 18 nations are parties to the 1979 Moon Treaty, which has not been signed or ratified by the United States, China or Russia.
Bridenstine said Friday that NASA wants to make sure there is a “strong legal framework based on international law” that allows individuals and businesses to pursue private interests on the Moon.
“What we are trying to do is make sure there is a standard of behavior that says that resources can be mined and that we are doing it in a way that complies with the Outer Space Treaty,” Bridenstine said. “And we are doing it in a way that people cannot interfere with their effort to extract those resources.”
Earlier this year, NASA outlined the Artemis Accords, principles that the agency’s international partners in lunar exploration are expected to follow. The principles include peaceful exploration of the moon, transparency, interoperability, a commitment to emergency assistance, the registration of space objects, and the public disclosure of scientific data.
“These standards of behavior … eventually become binding international laws,” Bridenstine said. “This is a path that must be opened, and I believe that the United States of America must lead here, and then those standards of behavior will ultimately inform international law that will ensure that the space is sustainable in the long term. “
Some scientists have questioned how NASA will implement planetary protection guidelines in an age of mining and other loosely regulated commercial activities in space. Planetary protection is focused on preventing spaceships, and eventually humans, from interfering with areas that could host alien life. The guidelines are stricter on worlds like Mars than on the Moon.
In July, NASA announced that it would end planetary protection requirements for missions that land in most places on the lunar surface. The areas around the poles, which host icy water, and the historic Apollo landing sites will remain under a higher category of planetary protection.
Bridenstine said Thursday that while NASA is not a regulatory agency, it can set expectations for private companies.
“If you want to be with us when we go to the moon, if you want to be a private company that can have NASA as a customer, if you want to be with us when we go to Mars, then there are certain behaviors that you have to follow,” Bridenstine said.
The request for proposals that NASA released Thursday is open to US and international companies. Proposals expire Oct.9 and NASA may award one or more awards, according to Stephanie Schierholz, an agency spokeswoman.
The companies that win prizes will collect lunar soil or rocks from anywhere on the moon and provide images to NASA of the collection and collected material, along with data identifying where the material was captured. The companies will then transfer ownership of the samples to NASA at the location on the moon.
Bridenstine said Thursday that NASA anticipates paying between $ 15,000 and $ 25,000 for between 50 and 500 grams of lunar soil. Final prices will be determined by the results of the competition, according to Schierholz.
If a company collects more than 500 grams, it could sell the rest to other countries, companies or individuals, Bridenstine said. And there could be more competition for companies to collect lunar soil and sell it to NASA.
In 2018, NASA established the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to host a series of competitions for companies to bid for contracts to transport scientific instruments to the moon. NASA selected 14 US companies to be eligible for CLPS contract awards, and the agency has awarded four robotic lunar landing missions to date.
The first CLPS missions, in development by Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, are scheduled for launch to the moon in 2021.
Eligibility for the lunar soil challenge announced Thursday will not be limited to CLPS providers. Other US companies and international groups will be able to bid, Bridenstine said.
“What we are trying to do is set the standards of behavior to create the regulatory certainty for companies to capitalize on and advance these programs,” Bridenstine said. “We are trying to demonstrate the concept that these resources can be extracted and traded, and not only traded between companies or individuals, but also between countries and across borders.
“I would say the starting point is the water ice,” he said. “That’s where a lot of private companies are going to want to go and get that water ice and then sell it to us as an agency or other private companies that are using the moon as a destination for all kinds of different abilities.”
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ EstebanClark1.
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