NASA is considering paying companies to collect dirt or rocks on the moon over the next four years, as a first step towards the agency’s goal of accelerating lunar exploration.
“The time has come to establish regulatory certainty for ractivating and trading space resources,” NASA Administrator Jim Brydenstein said in a tweet.
NASA is seeking proposals from companies on how and where the lunar regolith will be stored. Under the terms of the agreement, by 2024 a company will collect 50 grams to 500 grams of lunar land, provide NASA with information on that material and where to find it, and then transfer the ownership of the material to the space agency.
The agency said the collected material would later become its “sole asset”, with NASA planning to retrieve the material at a later date. ”
Competition for contracts Not limited to companies, October 2. Bids are due. NASA did not anticipate the cost of the lunar collection agreement. But the agency outlined the payment structure, giving companies 10% at the time of the awards, 10% when the company launches their storage spacecraft, and 80% of the companies once they transfer materials to NASA.
“We are putting our policies into practice to usher in a new era of research and discovery that will benefit all humanity,” Bridensta wrote in a blog post.
NASA’s announcement follows President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this year that the US would receive more international support for its policy that would allow private entities to collect and use resources in space. Trump’s executive order essentially confirms a decision taken by Congress in 2015, which gives American individuals and corporations “the right to engage in commercial research, recovery, and the use of resources in outer space.”
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