Mining on the Moon by the US In the US, will space militarization continue soon?

Colonization of the moon and lunar mining has always been a well-established theory for many decades. (Reuters photo)

Last week, through an executive order from the President of the United States, Donald Trump, NASA is soon ready to extract water ice from the moon and other natural resources. Already in 2015, EE. USA He had passed a law that allowed American businesses and citizens to use the resources of the moon and asteroids.

What is special about Moon to Mine?

Moon is considered a treasure for rare items. Rare earth elements are considered rare since they appear in small concentrations on Earth. The process to extract these elements from the host rocks is extremely difficult. Modern electronic items use these rare elements for critical operation. For example, yttrium is used in laser technology, neodymium in magnets, and europium in televisions. These elements can be considered vital for emerging technologies and China has the largest reserves for these, making it a 90% supplier of these to the world.

As previously reported in the Financial Express Online, the Chandrayaan-1 mission from India discovered the presence of water on the lunar surface and this will be most essential to the livelihood of any colony on the Moon.

The Helium-3 element is only available on the Moon since the lunar surface captures these particles that originate from the Sun and are expelled by solar winds. Helium-3 is considered a fuel for fusion reactors and may aid future space travel.

Moon Rovers for Mining

Robots and Rovers have been the mainstay of research on Mars, and NASA has spent a great deal of resources developing space exploration. “These robots perform human-guided tasks on Mars, the Moon, and any celestial body without the need to risk a human in a dangerous environment. The safety of astronauts in the space environment is paramount and a large support system needs to be built around humans to hold them in space, yet smart robots can be kept in such places with many reduced obligations. NASA and the US Defense Research Institution. USA DARPA are already creating “Robonauts,” which are basically humanoid with artificial intelligence to carry out human-like activities in space, “says Milind Kulshreshtha, a C4I expert.

“For decades, NASA has focused on creating multi-purpose, small but smart, high-tech robotic landing devices to achieve scientific and exploration objectives in habitable celestial bodies. The energy source for these equipment must be predominantly solar energy harnessed through batteries, “he adds.

Colonization of the moon

Colonization of the moon and lunar mining has always been a well-established theory for many decades. And NASA already has plans to land humans on the Moon in 2024 as the agenda for the Artemis 3 mission, 55 years after Apollo 17 took off. They will be the first people on the Moon in the 21st century.

According to Kulshreshtha, “Any ambition to configure mining activity on the moon will involve lunar colonization as a first step, along with lunar mining that requires an operational infrastructure with storage configuration on the lunar surface itself. Although SpaceX has already cut launch costs with reusable rockets, but any mining effort on the lunar surface as a commercial activity will require a large amount of government funding. The supply chain of raw material from the lunar surface back to Earth is not considered a commercially viable option unless the processing of the product of some kind takes place on the lunar surface itself. ”

Furthermore, there are multiple natural challenges on the lunar surface, such as high radiation and extreme variations in surface temperature. “Moondust is considered a building material there, in itself an extremely abrasive glassy substance, which represents a health hazard and can wreak havoc on machinery,” he explains. Even long-term low-gravity exposure has many adverse human health risks, such as muscle degeneration and loss of bone density, etc. comes to space operations. “

Space Command Post

With resourceful commercial players like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s Space X projects investing billions of dollars in rocket and space technology, the Earth-Moon zone will be a critical area of ​​operations in military terms. Already, low Earth orbit is part of ISR’s activities to gain an advantage over an adversary on Earth.

A US space command. USA It was launched a couple of months ago to achieve combat functions and combat support through space-based weapon support systems. The United States has carried out space weapons since 1985 and again gained independent status recently due to the perceived threat with the rapid advances in space technology made by Russia and China. Furthermore, assets located in space will also require adequate protection and this can lead to a conflict between rivals, which begins in space and extends to Earth.

China also has an ambitious space program, and in 2007 it tested an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT). Overall, in 2003 China’s first manned mission to space was successfully accomplished and in 2008 Chinese “taikonauts” completed the first spacewalk. A Chinese Space Station program was established in 2011 with the Space Station’s first manned docking in 2016. Since January 2019, a Chinese lunar rover has been operating on the dark side of the Moon. China is also known to be making progress with positioning a new space station for a long-term presence in space and also plans to have a lunar base.

Lack of space treaties

According to experts, the Rules of the Highway to Space are not in the form of any treaty approved by the United Nations or any other central body. However, an Outer Space Treaty agreed under the Presidency of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs only restricts a nation from owning land on the Moon. It does not limit any nation from exploring the lunar surface for minerals and metals, thus making the US mining effort. USA Be a legal activity. Furthermore, there is no clear consensus on the level of militarization and armament of space, which gives a definitive advantage to the initial explorers and colonizers in space.

Considering the probable shape of the world in the near future, the US USA They have used the Space card to take advantage of all its advantages to maintain their leadership position in the dynamics of world power. Its geopolitical, commercial and military objectives have always been intertwined to focus on maintaining the number one position as a superpower.