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The US space agency announces contracts awarded to four companies to harvest soil from the moon for $ 1 to $ 15,000.
NASA will pay a company just $ 1 to collect lunar samples for the US space agency.
NASA announced Thursday that it has awarded contracts to four companies to harvest soil from the moon for $ 1 to $ 15,000, rock-bottom prices that are set to set a precedent for the private sector’s future exploitation of space resources.
Contracts are with Lunar Outpost of Golden, Colorado for $ 1; Tokyo’s ispace Japan for $ 5,000; ispace Europe of Luxembourg for $ 5,000; and Masten Space Systems of Mojave, California for $ 15,000.
“I think it’s a little surprising that we can buy lunar regolith from four companies for a total of $ 25,001,” said Phil McAlister, director of NASA’s Division for Commercial Space Flights.
The companies plan to collect during unmanned missions already scheduled to the Moon in 2022 and 2023.
Companies must collect a small amount of lunar soil, known as regolith, from the moon and provide images to NASA of the collection and material collected.
Ownership of the lunar soil will then be transferred to NASA and will become “the exclusive property of NASA for the agency’s use under the Artemis program.”
As part of the program, NASA plans to land a human on the moon by 2024 and lay the foundations for sustainable exploration and an eventual mission to Mars.
“The precedent is a very important part of what we’re doing today,” said Mike Gold, NASA’s associate administrator for international and inter-agency relations.
“We think it’s very important to set the precedent that private sector entities can mine, they can take these resources but NASA can buy and use them to power not just NASA’s business, but a whole new dynamic era of public development and exploration. and private on the moon. “
The companies plan to collect during planned unmanned missions to the moon in 2022 and 2023 [File: NASA/Central Press/Getty Images]
Any lessons learned on the moon would be crucial for an eventual mission to Mars.
“The human mission to Mars will be even more challenging and challenging than our lunar operations, which is why it is so vital to learn from our experiences on the moon and apply those lessons to Mars,” Gold said.
The United States is trying to set a precedent because there is currently no international consensus on property rights in space.
China and Russia have not reached an agreement with the United States on the matter.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty is vague, but it holds that outer space “is not subject to national appropriation for claim of sovereignty, for use or occupation or by any other means.”
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