Trump signs executive order to support moon mining, tap asteroid resources
Source: Space.com
By Mike Wall 5 hours ago
The water ice and other lunar resources that will help the United States establish a long-term human presence on the moon are there for the taking, the White House believes.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order today (April 6) establishing U.S. policy on the exploitation of off-Earth resources. That policy stresses that the current regulatory regime notably, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty allows the use of such resources.
This view has long held sway in U.S. government circles. For example, the United States, like the other major spacefaring nations, has not signed the 1979 Moon Treaty, which stipulates that non-scientific use of space resources be governed by an international regulatory framework. And in 2015, Congress passed a law explicitly allowing American companies and citizens to use moon and asteroid resources.
The new executive order makes things even more official, stressing that the United States does not view space as a "global commons" and sees a clear path to off-Earth mining, without the need for further international treaty-level agreements.
Read more: https://www.space.com/trump-moon-mining-space-resources-executive-order.html?utm_source=notification
I'm a total space nerd, but an executive order does not equal funding. Also, I've a feeling the resources Trump wants to focus on are very...carbony.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)Don't have to deal with the Moon's gravity well. I think possibly the hydrogen and helium isotopes might have potential for future fueling stations for spacecraft, but we are a long way from that.
Onyrleft
(344 posts)dameatball
(7,402 posts)ffr
(22,676 posts)TeamPooka
(24,286 posts)Space 1999 here we come.
Anything tRump touches dies.
dbonds
(4,793 posts)Any body else they might could pull it off. HG Wells forsaw this...
Alacritous Crier
(3,822 posts)Deep State Gnostic
(64 posts)llmart
(15,565 posts)Someone probably just sticks a piece of paper in front of him, gives him some b.s. about what it is and he signs it.
What a jackass.
Warpy
(111,419 posts)That's one EO that will either hit the circular file or be framed at the Smithsonian in the future in the Mad King Don exhibit.
I guess with the Space Force and its Star Trek ripoff logo, he thinks the money will just roll on in, no competition will dare arise.
CaptYossarian
(6,448 posts)I got to the last sentence still expecting the satire, but was disappointed.
What? Isn't this due to a cheese shortage?
Will Jared team up with Shatner to go where no Trump has gone before? (Grad school qualifies, but so does a battlefield.)
bucolic_frolic
(43,451 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,064 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)as in tribute, like Tony Soprano.
htuttle
(23,738 posts)dhill926
(16,380 posts)jesus christ...
raccoon
(31,131 posts)Lonestarblue
(10,144 posts)I am so sick of this Trump nightmare. He is a monster, and a stupid monster at that.
DeminPennswoods
(15,294 posts)either the moon or, preferably, Mars. The cultists can go with him.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)Bengus81
(6,936 posts)spudspud
(512 posts)for God's sake, to just get to the ISS. With funding cuts, and canned programs to replace the shuttle, his EO means squat. And I don't think we'll see much from NASA on this front any time soon, without another space race. It'll be up to the private sector, like SpaceX to get anything of practical significance done in the next couple of decades, I believe.