Space-mining could be the new frontier for oil states

Moon, asteroids could yield water, minerals

Is water the new oil of space? It may be to Middle Eastern oil states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who are looking at space as a way to diversify out of the earthly benefits of fossil fuel.

“Middle East oil states are investing in satellite technology and trying to transform their domestic economies into digital economies and knowledge-based economies,” said Tom James of Navitas Resources, an energy consultant based in London and Singapore.

As space colonizers such as Elon Musk and Jeffrey P. Bezos (owner of The Washington Post) aspire to shrink the cost of space travel, interest has picked up among oil states and others in how to power space settlements using water and minerals mined from the heavens.

Oil states are investing in companies and infrastructure that could one day mine minerals and water found on the moon and in asteroids.

“They are investing in it in order to attract business to the Middle East,” James said.

Oil states have large, empty spaces, relatively small populations and are located near the equator. The UAE has launched a multipronged effort to establish a space industry in which it has invested more than $5 billion, and that includes four satellites already in space and another due to launch in 2018.

“The Middle East is ideal for launching rockets and spaceships,” James said. “It’s the long-term solution. Oil and gas may not run forever. So they are looking to invest and be part of the new, future economy.”

The water is critical. It can be turned into hydrogen to fuel the spaceship, oxygen for breathing or left untouched for drinking and everyday use. Requiring only a fourday trip and containing lots of ice, the moon is a prime candidate for resource extraction.

The interest in space mining and industrialization has picked up in recent years as Musk, Bezos and others push outward. Part of the key to unlocking affordable space travel and space industrialization is finding extraterrestrial materials such as water and minerals that do not have to be rocketed up from Earth.

The possibilities are beginning to register with the business sector.

“Within the next five years,” James said, “mining and energy companies will start thinking about space mining before the shareholders start asking, ‘What is your strategy?’ and they answer, ‘Oh, we don’t have one.’”

The technology already exists. NASA launched a billion-dollar mission in September to vacuum materials from a 2,000-foot-wide asteroid called Bennu. The spacecraft is scheduled to sidle up to the asteroid in 2018, extend its arm and pull in its cargo.