‘US moon mining like Iraq invasion’
An American ‘‘invasion’’ of the moon could turn it into ‘‘another Afghanistan or Iraq’’, Russia has warned, in a furious response to President Donald Trump’s plans to set up a lunar mining project.
Washington is working on a legal blueprint for mining on the moon that could involve Canada, Japan and some European countries, as well as the United Arab Emirates.
The Artemis accords, named after a Nasa project to send astronauts to the moon by 2024, will not involve Russia, Reuters reported, citing insider sources. The project envisages the creation of ‘‘safety zones’’ around moon bases to protect them from rival countries.
Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency, described the accords as a new ‘‘coalition of the willing": the term used to describe the international alliance that invaded Iraq in 2003. Russia condemned the invasion, which led to the toppling of
Saddam Hussein, as a violation of international law.
‘‘The principle of the invasion is the same, be it the moon or Iraq,’’ Rogozin, 56, wrote on Twitter. ‘‘Create a coalition of the willing and then, without the UN or even Nato, move forward to the goal. But this will only result in a new Afghanistan or Iraq.’’
Trump, 73, signed an order last month declaring that the US had the right to explore and use resources from outer space, including water ice and other minerals on the moon. Nasa plans to use the moon as a base for an eventual manned mission to Mars.
Nasa is pumping tens of billions of dollars into its Artemis project, which aims to establish the ‘‘sustainable exploration’’ of the moon by 2028, with commercial companies mining lunar rocks and water to convert to rocket fuel.
The aim is to ‘‘enable human expansion across the solar system’’.
Russia compared the idea to colonialism. ‘‘There have already been examples in history when one country decided to start seizing territories in its own interests and everyone remembers how that turned out.’’
Russia’s exclusion from the project came after General John Raymond, head of the US Space Force – established by Mr Trump in December – said that Russian spacecraft had been tracking US spy satellites in an ‘‘unusual and disturbing’’ manner. The use of so-called inspector satellites by Russia could ‘‘create a dangerous situation in space’’, he added.
‘‘There have already been examples in history when one country decided to start seizing territories in its own interests and everyone remembers how that turned out.’’ Dmitry Rogozin head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos