NASA announced on Wednesday that it is actively pursuing the development of lunar resources, beginning with oxygen and water and possibly expanding to include iron and rare earth elements in the future. The agency has already begun planning to excavate moon soil by 2032.
Nasa’s Moon Mining
Nasa is working to return humans to the moon under the Artemis mission, including the first woman and person of color by 2025, as the agency plans its next Mars station.
Gerald Sanders, a rocket scientist at Johnston Space Centre Nasa for 35 years, said: “A key part of the mission is advancing commercial opportunities in space.
The agency is looking to quantify potential resources, including energy, water and lunar soil, as a goal to attract commercial investment.”
“Developing access to resources on the moon will be key to cutting costs and developing a circular economy,” Sanders said. “We are literally just scratching the surface,” he said.
“We are trying to invest in the exploration phase, understand the resources… to [lower] risk such that external investment makes sense that could lead to development and production,” he told a conference in Brisbane.
Nasa intends to send a test drill rig to the moon by the end of the month, with a larger-scale excavation of regolith — moon soil — and a pilot processing plant planned for 2032.
Commercial rocket companies that could use the moon’s resources for fuel or oxygen are expected to be the first customers.
According to Samuel Webster, the agency’s assistant director, “the Australian Space Agency is involved in developing a semi-autonomous rover that will take regolith samples on a Nasa mission as early as 2026.”
The rover will demonstrate the collection of oxygen-containing oxides in lunar soil. “Using separate equipment sent to the moon with the rover, NASA will aim to extract that oxygen,” he said.
“This… is a critical step toward establishing a long-term human presence on the moon, as well as supporting future Mars missions,” he added.
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