Mining in space

(1)   Wikipedia on asteroid mining

(2)   International Business Times, January 08 2014
Reporting that NASA has recently teamed up with heavy-equipment giant Caterpillar Inc., to develop drilling and mining technologies that could one day be used in space.

(3)  New Scientist articles on mining asteroids:

      5 December 2013

      23 January 2013

      For more, visit http://www.newscientist.com/ and enter “asteroid mining” in the site’s search box

(4) Space mining corporations' official websites

      Planetary Resources, Inc.
      Deep Space Industries Inc

      Bigelow Aerospace Inc

(5) 2013 essay on the Space Review website about Jim Benson and the Near Earth Asteroid Prospector project, 1997. This project didn't get off the ground but Benson, now deceased, is a seminal figure in the space mining field. This is my source for the quote where Benson announces he will "declare ownership" of an asteroid.

(6) Lunar property rights:

  >>    Report by National Geographic magazine November 13, 2013 on Bigelow and lunar property rights

  >>    “Bigelow to press US government on lunar property rights” in Space Politics blog by Jeff Foust, November 2013

>>     Fear of a Chinese Moon. Report of a 2011 speech by Robert Bigelow, warning that China may claim the Moon as its territory. According to Jeff Foust, Bigelow is out on a limb here, and close observers of the Chinese space effort don't share his fears.

>>   “Mining the Moon? Space Property Rights Still Unclear, Experts Say” on SPACE.com by Leonard David, Aug 7, 2014.  Unclear who is allowed to extract and profit from the moon's resources, leading to a growing debate within scientific, entrepreneurial and policy circles — a debate made more lively and complicated by the entry on to the scene of private corporations.

>>  Business hails support from U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for future private lunar modules on the Moon, but in this consistent with international law? On SPACE.com by Leonard David, February 24, 2015.


(7) International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG), a public forum sponsored by the world's space agencies to support international cooperation towards a world strategy for the exploration and utilization of the Moon. 

(8) The 1994 Beatenberg Declaration on exploration and utilisation of the Moon.
This was adopted by representatives from space agencies, scientific institutions and industry from around the world. It recognises the benefit of close coordination between all parties, but also differences of opinion over the role of humans in space and the economic utilisation of the Moon.

(9) Google Lunar XPRIZE - A $30 million competition to land a privately funded robot on the Moon


(10) “Encouraging private investment in space: does the current space law regime have to be changed? (part 1)” by Jonathan Babcock in Space Review, January 5, 2015. This essay disputes the common rhetoric that the current space law regime outlaws appropriation in space and discourages investment. Argues that the two treaties (OST and Moon Agreement) simply outlaw unilateral appropriation. Comments worth reading too. 

(11) ASTEROIDS Act. Congress looks to allow private companies to own and mine in outer space.

Proposed legislation in the U.S. House 2014 would recognize that. companies harvesting resources from asteroids will own them under international law, and would protect the first company to work an asteroid from interference from subsequent arrivals.

USA Today, September 15, 2014 on ASTEROIDS Act
The Space Review, September 22, 2014 on ASTEROIDS Act

(12) Various

>> Companies vying to turn asteroids into filling stations. BBC News, Washington,  26 September 2014.  Unfortunately for the companies, private mining of the Moon is legally off limits due to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. But mining asteroids - particularly for resources which could remain in space - falls into a legal grey area unconceived of by the Treaty. As the commercial space industry grows, entrepreneurs argue they should be able to own what they find.

>> “The asteroid mining bank” by Vidvuds Beldavs Proposal for an asteroid mining bank and asteroid mining claims modelled on mining claims in 1849 California gold rush.  Space Review January 28, 2013. 

>> Legal expert says James Cameron's multi-billion space mining venture may be hit with lawsuits | Mail Online, 1 May 2012

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