Luxembourg ramps up efforts to enter asteroid mining space race

ASTEROID mining is considered the next big space race for humanity, and a tiny country of half a million people is leading the charge.

The battle for precious minerals is set to get very interesting.

ASTEROID mining is considered by many as the new frontier in the hunt for natural resources and Luxembourg is the latest player to throw its hat in the ring.

The tiny European nation has teamed up with Californian company Deep Space Industries (DSI) to become the first European nation to enter the emerging space race. The partnership aims to produce a small 30cm spacecraft called Prospector-X which is designed to test some of the country’s asteroid mining technologies.

The plan is to send the probe into low Earth orbit in the near future. If successful the mission will be followed by the deployment of asteroid mining spacecrafts to search for water and minerals in outer space some time after 2020.

Last year US president Barack Obama signed a controversial bill giving US companies legal ownership of materials they extract from asteroids, causing some to predict a galactic gold rush will soon take place.

Luxembourg first announced its intention to mine asteroids in February and since then things have moved very quickly for the country of half a million.

DSI chairman Rick Tumlinson said Luxembourg’s intentions show that space is not just an arena for the major world powers and corporate titans.

“It immediately shatters the myths that asteroid mining is either the fantasy of a wealthy Silicon Valley cabal or an imperialist American plot to take over the solar system,” he told National Geographic.

Space mining has governments and companies looking skyward.

A separate US company called Planetary Resources has been one of the driving forces behind asteroid mining technologies. The company has a host of high-profile Silicon Valley shareholders including Alphabet executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, as well as Virgin founder Richard Branson. Last year Planetary Resources launched its first satellite from the International Space Station to test its asteroid prospecting technology.

But those concerned about an emerging space race have been quick to point out the uncertain legal position of the practice. Laying claim to a planet is outlawed in the 1967 International Space Treaty, but laws around resource extraction are far more ambiguous.

A website set up by the Luxembourg government on the topic of asteroid mining acknowledges the largely unestablished legality over the futuristic practice.

“Luxembourg is fully aware that the legal issue is not trivial. Luxembourg will therefore carefully explore the right way to support and promote space mining in a balanced and yet economically performing way,” the website says.

“The start of the project will have a rather scientific or research character, which is unproblematic under international law. For later phases, proponents are operating under the assumption that near-Earth asteroids are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.”

A promotional video produced last year by Deep Space Industries touts the inevitability of the human race expanding its search for precious minerals to the solar system.

“Our tiny planet sits in a vast sea of resources, including millions of asteroids bathed in the sun’s free energy 24 hours a day,” the video exclaims.

“The same rocks that fall from our sky contain everything that we could ever need... it’s time someone seized the opportunity.”

It’s an opportunity that the little European country of Luxembourg is poised to grab with both hands.