President Trump’s latest executive order may have some ready to brush off their “drill, baby, drill” memorabilia.
On Monday, the president signed an executive order that encourages the United States to harvest minerals from the moon, Mars, and any other celestial bodies. The order allows both government and private companies to use resources gathered in space while directing the State Department to garner international support for the practice.
This order shows the U.S. promoting a different path than the 18 nations who signed the 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, an international pact also known as the Moon Agreement, which said all resources from space fall under international jurisdiction. The U.S. did not join the Moon Agreement and objects to it being used as international law.
Instead, the Trump administration claimed the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, which 109 nations and the U.S. signed, allows for any country to harvest minerals found in space.
“Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law. Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons,” the order reads. “Accordingly, it shall be the policy of the United States to encourage international support for the public and private recovery and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law.”
The order requires the State Department to “encourage international support” for resource exploration by individual countries and the private sector. The department will also consider international agreements with other nations that allow for the “safe and sustainable” use of celestial minerals.
In a statement about the order, Trump said, “After braving the vast unknown and discovering the new world, our forefathers did not only merely sail home — and, in some cases, never to return. They stayed, they explored, they built, they guided, and through that pioneering spirit, they imagined all of the possibilities that few dared to dream.”
Scott Pace, the deputy assistant to the president and executive secretary of the U.S. National Space Council, added, “As America prepares to return humans to the moon and journey on to Mars, this executive order establishes U.S. policy toward the recovery and use of space resources, such as water and certain minerals, in order to encourage the commercial development of space.”
Congress has already approved private companies using minerals from the moon in legislation passed in 2015. NASA is slated to return to the moon in 2024.
