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Last week, through an executive order by the US President Donald Trump, soon NASA is set to mine moon’s water ice and other natural resources. As early as 2015, the US had approved a law allowing American companies and citizens to use moon and asteroid resources.
What is special on Moon to Mine?
Moon is considered a trove for rare elements. Rare-earth elements are considered rare since they appear in only small concentrations on Earth. The process to extract these elements from host rocks is extremely difficult. Modern electronic items use these rare elements for critical functioning. For example, Yttrium is used in laser technology, Neodymium used in magnets and Europium used in televisions. Such elements can be considered vital to emerging technologies and China holds the largest reserves for these, making it about 90% supplier of these for the World.
As has been reported by the Financial Express Online earlier, India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission discovered water presence on the lunar surface and this shall be most essential for sustenance of any colony on the Moon.
Helium-3 element is only available on Moon since lunar surface captures these particles originating from the Sun and blown outwards by the solar winds. Helium-3 is considered as a fuel for fusion reactors and can help in future space travel.
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