Signed last week the decree of the President of the United States to permit resource extraction on the moon and asteroids will mark a milestone in space exploration. As more than hundred other signatories to “the outer space Treaty”, the United States can’t claim ownership of anything beyond Earth, but their spacecraft. But it is unofficially allowed private entities that America holds all hope.
NASA is already a year waiting for what Elon Musk or its competitors from other corporations will create an effective carrier rocket for a conclusion in space payloads. But they were not involved in development – the Agency recognises the gap in this area. De facto, for USA today the access to space depends entirely on the partners, whether the Federal space Agency or private company, and not just in the interests of the latter and passed a new decree.
Officially, the next sending people to the moon is planned for 2024 and will take place in the framework of Artemis, which is positioned as an intermediate step to Mars. NASA is accepting applications and preparing to practice many different useful technologies, from the extraction of water from lunar ice to the construction of capital facilities and mines. To do this will, most likely, private contractors, the Agency and the U.S. government are bound by the international Treaty and the lack of funding.
The result is a very promising scheme. As the project “Artemis” does not imply exploration of the moon, it actually allows them to do on the surface of the satellite anything. As in the days of the gold rush in Alaska, the emphasis is on private equity, many enthusiasts, willing to take risks for big returns. This means that the number of “space companies” in the coming years will grow rapidly, not only in the United States.
Source — Space