There is a U.S. flag on the Moon, but in the future, countries may start to turn access to the Moon and asteroids into serious wealth.
NASA/Neil A. Armstrong
Current trends suggest that powerful nations are defining the rules of resource use in space and satellite access in ways that will make it hard for developing nations to ever catch up.
Where 2020 XL5 would appear in the dawn sky if we could see it with the naked eye from Chile.
NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva
Governments and corporations must get serious about the legal, technical, economic, social and ethical implications of a potential space-based resource economy.
How close can a potentially dangerous asteroid get before it’s detected?
Shutterstock/Alexyz3d
We’re finding more near-Earth objects all the time, and the challenge is to identify those that could potentially hit us. So how come we missed one that caused a huge blast in December?
Edwin E. ‘Buzz’ Aldrin Jr. poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969.
Neil A. Armstrong/NASA/AP Photo
Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1969, American astronauts planted a US flag on the moon. A space lawyer explains the implications, who owns the moon, and what it means for lunar mining.
Nearly 50 years since the first man walked on the moon, our morals are still stranded on Earth.
A rocket carrying the NBN’s Sky Muster II satellite. Perhaps one day Australia might have more direct involvement in space activities.
AAP Image/National Broadband Network
An Australian Space Agency could capitalise on our history working with NASA and the ESA and boost our entry into the expanding commercial space industry.
No one nation should be allowed to go it alone and develop a mining industry in space. It needs an international effort and Australia, with a long history in mining, can play its part.
Antarctica is managed by the Antarctic Treaty System, which regulates what states and private companies can do.
The National Guard
If we’re going to mine asteroids, then we need an international treaty to prevent it becoming a wild west. Thankfully we can look to Antarctica to see how such a treaty might work.
Many of the bodies in our solar system’s contain precious resources that could be used here or in space.
NASA
To date, all human economic activity has depended on the material and energy resources of a single planet; understandably, perhaps. It is conceivable though that future advances in space exploration could…
The golden age of planetary exploration had voyagers navigating new sea routes to uncharted territory. These territories were then claimed in the name of the monarchs who had financed the expeditions…