Order confirms Americans have the right to engage in recovery and use of space based resources.
The Moon’s resources are up for grabs.
At least the current White House administration believes so. In an Executive Order signed today Donald Trump stated that the moon’s resources are not “Global commons”.
Global commons is a term that is used to describe international, supranational and global resource domains in which common-pool resources are found. These resources are usually describe as the oceans, outer space and the Antarctic.
The White House’s Executive Order is to clarify uncertainties on the recovery and use of resources in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies.
This is believed to pave the way for commercial entities to engage in utilisation of space resources and enhance commercial exploration of our solar system.
Source: nasa.gov
It states that as the US is not a party to the 1979 Moon Agreement and does not consider the Moon Agreement an effective instrument to guide nation states in the promotion of commercial space exploration.
The Moon Agreement is an international effort to create “the necessary legal principles for governing the behaviour of states, international organisations, and individuals who explore celestial bodies other than Earth, as well as administration of the resources that exploration may yield.”
The Executive Order is a supportive order for NASA’s Artemis Program which aims to send 2 astronauts back to the Moon’s surface by 2024 and to establish a sustainable human presence there by 2028.
A key factor to the success of Artemis is the frozen water ice believed to be stored in large amounts in permanently shadowed craters at the Moon’s poles.
The Executive Order also directs US Officials to encourage international participation in the Artemis Program. Seeking to “negotiate joint statements and bilateral and multilateral arrangements with foreign states regarding safe and sustainable operations for the public and private recovery and use of space resources”.
The White house believes American industry and the industries of like-minded countries will benefit from the establishment of stable international practices by which private citizens, companies and the economy will benefit from expanding the economic sphere of human activity beyond the Earth.
