Mining in space boosted by bill
A bill clearing the way for the discovery and use of resources beyond Earth — on an asteroid, say, or even the moon — is awaiting a presidential signature, which is expected soon.
The House this week passed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which also will exempt private companies engaging in orbital or sub-orbital launches for human tourists from most regulatory control and liability during a so-called learning period that will extend to 2023.
“This bill encourages the private sector to launch rockets, take risks and shoot for the stars,” said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Science Committee.
The purpose of the learning period, already in law but soon to expire, is to allow private companies to develop flight experience and best practices that ultimately could form the basis for rules to be devised by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. In the meantime, any passengers who participate in space flight do so at their own peril.
While passenger traffic in space is highly speculative — dependent on technology barely on the drawing boards — the potential for Houston’s
participation in it is quite real. Already Ellington Airport has been designated by the city as a future spaceport, with artistic renderings showing what appears to be a more modern style of airport, with larger and more impressive “planes.” Ten such sites have been designated around the U.S.
Should technology ever make suborbital or even orbital transportation a reality, the learning period will be long gone. And the FAA likely will be monitoring performance and overseeing the industry much as it does today’s aviation industry.
The new bill, which received strong bipartisan support, also extends the mission of the Space Station until 2024. That assures mission control operations at the Johnson Space Center another decade or so of constant use.
Keeping a dream alive
The new bill anticipates a day when people regularly leave Earth orbit. That day probably won’t come in the lifetime of many of those who voted its approval, but the serious intent behind it shows that the dream of exploration is very much alive, regardless of NASA’s current low-priority status.
The majority of commercial space enterprises supporting the law were those eager for unencumbered resource rights. A handful of fledgling companies are exploring the potential for extraterrestrial mining, long a theme in science fiction but still a distant reality.
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an industry group, praised the law, saying it “unleashes and incentivizes the creativity that leads to unknown breakthroughs in innovation.”
The bill does not address the myriad potential legal issues that could ensue in the event of lunar, planetary or asteroid mining, but it does establish the concept that companies are free to take what they can find — if they can get there. Because space treaties have established that celestial bodies cannot be “owned” by nations or private companies, it is not clear how a U.S. law would take precedence over a conflicting foreign statute, if, say, a Chinese company set its sights on the same asteroid.
Energizing companies
But American entrepreneurs and lawmakers said it was an important step.
Texas Republican Ted Cruz, who coauthored the companion bill in the Senate, said it was crucial to establish a mechanism for property rights to provide motivation and confidence to American companies that in time could become industrial giants.
“This legislation will help establish certainty and the environment for growth for a burgeoning industry in which a single asteroid could net trillions of dollars in platinum and other rareearth metals,” Cruz wrote in an op-ed piece.
The would-be space mining magnates promise progress in exploiting the worlds beyond will be made faster than anyone imagines. Legislators are confident they are right.
“Once-deserted launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center are already coming back to life, and with the passage of this bill, we could soon see even more companies making their way to the Cape (Canaveral),” Republican Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida told the Orlando Sentinel.