US President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order called Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources, establishing an official policy about mining resources in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, which the US doesn’t consider as global commons. The US is obviously making preparations for returning to the moon with a stronger eagerness to privatize the outer space.
The strategic significance of the moon, with its abundant mineral resources, has over time been recognized by all countries. A primary estimate shows that in addition to abundant mineral substances, the moon surface is also home to one to five million tons of helium-3, which is a perfect raw material for nuclear fusion. Thanks to the moon’s weaker gravity (about a sixth that of the Earth’s), building a launching site there will largely reduce the costs of putting payloads into the space; solar power plants will be more efficient because there is no atmosphere. Furthermore, a large space program like lunar exploration will be a massive driving force of national economic and technological development. America’s current superiority in IT, biotechnology and new materials are to a large extent based on the digestion, improvement and secondary development of technologies deriving from the Apollo Program. The prospect of maintaining its technological superiority is appealing to the US.
Entering the space and returning to the moon has been a consistent objective of the incumbent US administration. The recent executive order on the exploration and use of lunar resources wasn’t the first time that Washington was trying to pave the way for monopolizing natural resources in outer space. The Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) it adopted in 2015 encouraged private American companies to mine resources on the moon and other celestial bodies. The country also announced in 2019 to re-activate the lunar landing program coded “Artemis”, aiming to send astronauts to the moon in 2024 and build sustainable human presence there by 2028.
The US is also promoting the development of commercial spaceflight activities to pursue global leadership in the space area. Other than the Space Policy Directive-2 and Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD-2, SPD-3) signed by the White House in 2018 to enhance the regulation of commercial space efforts, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is also in cooperation with commercial entities such as Blue Origin and SpaceX. Blue Origin released last May the Blue Moon lander designed for the Artemis program, while SpaceX is developing a reusable Starship launch system. The engagement of these commercial companies will undoubtedly support America’s military space program.
However, while trying to advance its enclosure movement on the moon, the US, apart from difficulties in technology and capital, also faces restraints imposed by international treaties like the Moon Agreement, as well as pressure from the international community. What the US did - granting itself the right to the exploration of space resources and denying the moon and other planets as global commons - likens itself to a pirate, said Alexey Pushkov, head of the Federation Council’s Commission on information policy, when commenting on Trump’s recent signing of the executive order.
The US isn’t a signing party to the Moon Agreement, but what it did contravened the international consensus that “the exploration and use of the moon shall be the province of all mankind”. That’s why the US needs to find itself a plausible excuse with its upcoming lunar program. It is reported that NASA released the Plan for Sustained Lunar Exploration and Development, which specified the goals and steps of the Artemis program, days before the executive order was signed. Apparently, the US was trying to set the policy ground to justify its “first come, first served” policy regarding moon resources, which should arouse the international community’s high alert.
