UNITED STATS−President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on April 6, permitting the mining on the moon.
According to reports, there is lunar ice on the moon that can be converted into oxygen, liquid water, and rocket fuel. Those minerals are abundant in permanently shadowed polar craters on the moon. Extracting the resources can help life thrive on the moon.
“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 possibilities that few dared to dream,” said President Trump in his Executive Order.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty allows the use of space resources on the moon, Mars, and elsewhere. In 2015, the 114th Congress passed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, known as the Space Act of 2015.
President Trump has publicly stated his aspirations to activate NASA and the space program in the United States recently.
On December 20, 2019, he signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act in Hangar 6 at Andrews Air Force Base establishing the Space Force.
