Private firm to mine Moon dust
A small Japanese spacecraft will later this month embark on a three-month journey to land on the Moon.
Although the mission has gone largely under the radar, it is set to usher in an entirely new era of space use, marking the first time that a private company has done business on the lunar surface.
The company, Ispace, will be collecting regolith – the grey, sandy dust which covers the surface of the Moon – and selling it to Nasa.
Although the contract is for a nominal US$5000 (NZ$8000), it will be the first business transaction ever to take place offEarth.
The mission raises important questions about who owns the Moon, or any other space resource, and who should be allowed to exploit it.
Last year, Japan passed a law granting Japanese companies permission to prospect for, extract and use various space resources. Last week, it granted
Ispace a licence to conduct business activity on the Moon.
Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s space policy minister, said: ‘‘If Ispace transfers ownership of lunar resources to Nasa in accordance with its plan, it will be the first case in the world of commercial transactions of space resources on the Moon by a private operator.
‘‘This will be a groundbreaking first step toward the establishment of commercial space exploration by private operators.’’
The US signed a similar law under Barack Obama in 2015, giving American companies the right to the resources they extract, while Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates have since passed similar legislation.
However, some countries, such as Russia, are uncomfortable with what they see as a land grab by individual countries and have called for international regulations rather than national laws.
Even before the war with Ukraine, which has left the country struggling as a space power, Dmitry Rogozin, the director general of Roscosmos, stated: ‘‘Russia believes that states mustn’t adopt any laws and regulations on a unilateral basis because space is our common heritage and belongs to everyone.’’
Space law experts are watching the Japanese mission closely as it is likely to set a precedent for the future of mining on the lunar surface.
Christopher Newman, a professor of space law and policy at Northumbria University, said: ‘‘Space utilisation is one of the hot areas of space law at the moment.
‘‘What we have got currently is an ad hoc sort of situation where national legislatures are passing their own laws, and I think the US and Japan will be eager to establish a precedent here in what they can carry out commercially.