European scientists have announced plans to start\u00a0mining the moon\u00a0as early as 2025, though what they\u2019ll be extracting is neither gold nor diamonds, but waste-free nuclear energy thought to be worth trillions of dollars.<\/p>\n
The goal is to place a lander on the lunar surface to mine and process regolith for water, oxygen, metals and an isotope called helium-3, which may prove useful for fueling future fusion reactors.<\/p>\n
Regolith,\u00a0Universe Today<\/em> reported<\/a>, is a dust-like material that covers the lunar surface and is the result of billions of years of meteor and comet impacts. If anyone ever lives on the moon, they could use the regolith to build habitats for a base.<\/p>\n The mission will be in charge of the European Space Agency in partnership with ArianeGroup, Popular Mechanics <\/a><\/em>reported<\/a>. It will also count with the participation of Part-Time Scientists, a German group and former Google Lunar XPrize contestant<\/a>.<\/p>\n Europe isn\u2019t the only one getting on board of the lunar mining train. Both India and China have floated ideas about extracting Helium-3 from the Earth\u2019s natural satellite. Beijing has already landed on the moon twice in the 21st\u00a0century, with more missions to follow.<\/p>\n There are an estimated one million tonnes of helium-3 in the moon, though only 25% of that could be brought to Earth, Gerald Kulcinski, director of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former member of the NASA Advisory Council told Bloomberg<\/em> last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s enough to meet the world\u2019s current energy demands for at least two, and maybe as many as five, centuries, said the expert said, who estimates that helium-3 is worth almost $5 billion a tonne.<\/p>\n After being considered mostly a science-fiction tale, governments are now rushing to implement programs and legislation that allow them to join the race for mining in space.<\/p>\n In 2015, former US President Barack Obama\u00a0signed a law that grants US citizens rights to own resources<\/a>\u00a0mined in space. The ground-breaking rule was touted as a major boost to asteroid mining because it encourages the commercial exploration and utilization\u00a0of resources from asteroids obtained by US firms.<\/p>\n Shortly after,\u00a0Luxembourg launched an official initiative<\/a>\u00a0to promote the mining of asteroids for minerals. The tiny European country, which has been studying possible involvement in the sector since 2013, aims to become Europe\u2019s centre for space mining.<\/p>\n Canada is also eying the moon. Last year, Northern Ontario-based\u00a0Deltion Innovations partnered with Moon Express, the first American private space exploration firm to have been\u00a0granted government permission<\/a>\u00a0to travel beyond Earth’s orbit, on future opportunities in outer space.<\/p>\n Some of the space ventures in the works include plans to mine asteroids<\/a>, track space debris, build the\u00a0first human settlement in Mars<\/a>, and billionaire Elon Musk’s own plan for an unmanned mission to the red planet.<\/p>\n Geologists as well as emerging companies, such as\u00a0US-based Planetary Resources<\/a>, a firm pioneering the space mining industry, believe asteroids are packed with iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth, making up a market valued\u00a0in the trillions of dollars.<\/p>\n The post Mining the moon ready to lift off by 2025<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Geologists believe asteroids are packed with iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth, making up a market valued in the trillions.<\/p>\n The post Mining the moon ready to lift off by 2025<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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isn\u2019t the only one getting on board of the lunar mining train. Both India and China have floated ideas about extracting Helium-3 from the Earth\u2019s natural satellite.<\/q><\/p>\n
No longer science fiction<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Geologists\u00a0believe asteroids are packed with iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth, making up a market valued\u00a0in the trillions of dollars.<\/q><\/p>\n