Moon mining: The new ‘wild west’
The new ‘wild west’
International space exploration risks turning from the ‘‘the final frontier’’ to a lawless wild west as more nations and companies set their sights on the stars.
As this new era of space discovery gathers steam, Waikato University senior lecturer in law Dr Anna Marie Brennan believes the lack of agreed rules around mineral extraction on the Moon and other celestial bodies could lead to armed conflicts over ownership between countries and companies.
‘‘It is like the Europeans landing on the east coast of America and planting their flag on a particular territory and that territory is theirs.’’
It is not far-fetched science fiction. United States space agency Nasa has plans to explore the dark side of the Moon in 2022, which Brennan said would see the agency prospect for rare minerals on the lunar surface.
Brennan said Nasa had the funding and technology in place and a plans to launch its Viper rover to the Moon. ‘‘The aim there is to prospect and extract and try and discover what minerals are on there, in particular water, ice and helium 3.
‘‘Nasa’s plans do mark the start of a new era in space exploration.’’
Private companies, backed by the US government, are also looking at prospecting in space. Some countries have already introduced legislation stating that whatever private corporations found during this exploration is their property.
The United States passed the Space Act in 2015, permitting private corporations to engage in commercial exploration and exploitation of natural resources in outer space. It granted exclusive property rights to US space companies to own and sell all the natural resources extracted.
The United Arab Emirates is also in the process of introducing legislation to allow corporations to have copyrights over minerals extracted in space. Brennan said that could also include territory.
The existing legislation, such as the 1979 Moon Agreement, was not adequate as only 18 countries signed the agreement and the US was not one of them.
‘‘Ultimately, there are concerns that this accumulated mineral wealth could lead to quite a lot of political tension that could in turn destabilise the Earth’s economy. Some experts go as far to say that actually, we could in the future see armed conflict.’’
Brennan said there was a legal principle called the principle of the common heritage of mankind, meaning if minerals were found on the seabed, they were owned by everybody.
‘‘That same principle applies in outer space as well.
‘‘The big space-heavy countries like the United States are trying to circumvent the duties that they have signed up to with international treaties.’’
Brennan said there was a need for a strong international treaty to address these issues.
Another option is creating an international forum to licence and regulate who can go into space and
what can be extracted from the Moon.
The United Nations could play a role in space monitoring.
However, it relies on the individual countries to back any resolutions it makes.
‘‘It is a wild west and, ultimately, more and more states are adopting legislation, realising there is a lot of money to be made in outer space potentially in the future and they want to give private corporations as much leeway as possible to extract resources.’’
There are also a growing number of space companies that are eying up extracting minerals from the Moon and from asteroids.
‘‘Some experts are worried that mining on the Moon could decrease the lunar mass to such an extent that it could impact our tides back here on Earth.’’
Mining could also produce waste, adding to concerns around how to deal with environmental waste in space.
Brennan said there were also opportunities for New Zealand, which was an attractive place for a launch pad because its geographical location meant there was less air traffic for rockets to contend with.
‘‘It would be a lot easier to launch missions from New Zealand so I think New Zealand has in the future, a great opportunity here to capitalise on this. But again, there needs to be an open discussion and debate about the extent to which New Zealand wants to engage in the space race.’’
Brennan believes these issues will move from concept to reality within 10 years as technology advances and the costs of space travel reduce.
‘‘What is happening is that our laws are not keeping up at all with advances in new technology.’’