NASA to buy moon resources mined by private companies; transfer of ownership before 2024

After the Trump administration drafted the legal blueprint Artemis Accords for moon mining, NASA announced that it is seeking partnership with commercial entities to recover and use resources, including water and certain minerals on the moon and outer space. In a press release on September 10, NASA said that in order to land humans on Moon in a sustainable, innovative, and affordable by 2024, under Registration Convention, Article II, and Outer Space Treaty it was now looking to purchase the Moon “dirt” or rocks from any location on the lunar surface from the commercial entities. 

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NASA has asked the private companies to provide the imagery of the collection and the collected material, along with data that identifies the collection location, and conduct an “in-place” transfer of ownership of the lunar regolith or rocks to NASA. Announcing a payment for the lunar regolith, NASA said that the companies would get 10 percent for handing material, remaining 80 percent upon successful retrieval of the lunar regolith.

“NASA’s goal is that the retrieval and transfer of ownership will be completed before 2024,” the space agency said.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote in a blog post that the plan aims to hone the next-generation lunar science and technology to be able to send humans and spacecraft on Moon and Mars, and not to violate the 1967 treaty that exempts nations from celestial bodies and space ownership claims.

Under the new "norms of behaviour”, NASA attempts to collaborate with companies that send robots to mine lunar resources to help sustain future astronaut missions, Bridenstine said. 

"Sole property" of NASA

However, NASA informed in the press release that once the purchase is done with the companies and the ownership transfers, the collected material becomes the “sole property of NASA for our use”."The bottom line is we are going to buy some lunar soil for the purpose of it demonstrating that it can be done," Bridenstine said at a live-streamed press conference at the Secure World Foundation event. He further indicated that NASA might later set standards for the basic principles governing how people will live and work on the moon under the Artemis Accords. Scientific discoveries gained through robust, sustainable, and safe lunar exploration will benefit all of humanity, NASA said in the release. 

[Lunar module pilot, is photographed during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA]

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(Images Credit: NASA)