Humans want to mine the moon. Here's what space law experts say the rules are

[Judi Lynn]

Lunar exploration will be a test for space resource management. Will we pass or fail?

Jaela Bernstien · CBC News · Posted: Sep 01, 2022 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 1 hour ago

https://i.cbc.ca/1.6568799.1661983013!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_780/illustration-astronauts-moon.jpg

An illustration of what a NASA base camp at the lunar south pole might look like. NASA plans to build a lunar cabin, a rover and a mobile home. The eventual goal is for crew to be able to stay on the surface for up to two months at a time. (NASA )


Mining the moon might sound like a concept that belongs in a science fiction novel, but it's likely to be a part of reality in the not-so-distant future. That's made it a hot topic of discussion among space lawyers — yes, there are space lawyers — on Earth.

When Michelle Hanlon, co-director of the Air and Space Law Program at the University of Mississippi, tells people what she does for a living, she says most people are confused.

"Most people think I'm a real estate lawyer — what kind of space do you sell?" she said, laughing. But in fact, Hanlon is an expert in the law governing outer space.

There are several international agreements governing space, including The Outer Space Treaty, which was drafted during the Cold War and signed by more than 100 countries including the United States, China and Russia.

More:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/moon-mining-outer-space-treaty-1.6568648

[cstanleytech]

1. I do not foresee this happening with our current tech level.

After all we are largely using the same tech we were 40+ years ago when we last landed people on the moon so mining it is still very much in the realm of science fiction.
Sure, if something is discovered that makes it easier to get into orbit and travel to the moon in a reasonable amount of time it might make sense but currently? It's still a long way off.

[thecrow]

2. Wouldn't that make the moon lighter?

Would that alter the moon’s orbit over time?

[Silent3]

3. Do you realize the vast mass of the moon and what an incredibly tiny amount we could take away?

Last edited Sun Sep 18, 2022, 01:13 PM - Edit history (2)

The mass of the moon is 7.342×10²² kg.
The mass of, say, Mt. Everest is 1.75×10¹⁴ kg.

Take away an entire Mt. Everest worth of material and the moon will be 0.00000023835% lighter.

Imagine you're driving your car, and a mosquito that landed on your windshield is blown off as you drive. How differently do you think your car would handle after losing the weight of a mosquito? That's about the same effect as taking away a Mt. Everest's-worth of material from the moon.

And we're currently a long way from even taking away a decent sized truckload of material, forget about mountainous quantities.

[cstanleytech]

4. Agree, it simply is not economically feasible at this moment and time to

mine the moon and it may never be.

[Silent3]

5. Tritium mining might be worth it

If tritium-based fusion becomes a reality, the energy you get from the tritium should exceed the energy cost of mining and transporting it, especially once you can close the loop and use energy from tritium to mine more tritium.

That accomplished, the moon becomes a good source of materials for construction of space structures, and water and oxygen and fuel to use in those structures, cheaper at least than using Earth-extracted materials.

Perhaps once infrastructure is well established and supplied with relatively cheap energy, it might turn out to be economically feasible to use the moon to supply Earth-based needs for things like rare earth elements.