According to The Guardian, NASA aims to begin mining resources on the moon within the next ten years. It intends to extract earth from that location by 2032. The announcement comes as the ESA prepares to send humans to the moon by 2025 as part of its ambitious Artemis mission.
It will be the first landing on the moon by humans since NASA’s Apollo 17 crew in 1972. The trip will also be the first to carry a woman.
NASA will launch a test drill into space with the goal of harvesting lunar dirt and establishing a processing factory on the moon’s surface.
“We’re trying to invest in the exploration phase, understand the resources… to (lower) risk so that external investment makes sense, which could lead to development and production,” Gerald Sanders, a rocket scientist with NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, said during a conference in Brisbane, according to The Guardian.
“We are literally just scratching the surface,” Mr Sanders continued.
According to Reuters, the first customers will be commercial rocket companies that will exploit the moon’s surface for fuel or oxygen.
NASA explained why it plans to mine the moon and how the “lunar gold rush” could function in a 2015 post published on its website.
According to data from geological investigations, the moon includes three critical elements: water, helium, and rare earth metals.
