Out of this world: firm will sell moon dust to Nasa
AT THE end of November, a small Japanese spacecraft will launch and 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 does business on the lunar surface. The company, ispace, will be collecting regolith – the grey sandy moon dust which covers the surface of the satellite – and selling it to Nasa.
Although the contract is for a nominal $5,000 (£4,220), it will be the first ever business transaction to take place off-Earth. 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, and last week granted ispace a licence to conduct business activity on the Moon.
“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,” said Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s Minister of State for Space Policy. “This will be a groundbreaking first step toward the establishment of commercial space exploration by private operators.”
America signed a similar law under President 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, like 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, 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 closely.