By Professor Alan Duffy, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Flagship Initiatives; and Dr Evie Kendal, Senior Lecturer of Health Promotion, Swinburne University of Technology
When considering the future of mining, extracting resources from space may not be as far away as you think. Current estimates suggest that initial, small-scale mining operations on the moon could be a reality before the end of the decade. But why do nations and corporations have their eyes set on the moon’s natural resources? It’s all to do with costs.
If you want to explore space, you first need to use an enormous amount of fuel just to escape Earth’s gravity. And you pay this cost again and again every time you need to send more supplies. By the time you get to the moon, a bottle of water is literally worth more than its weight in gold. Using resources that are already available in space could potentially save a lot of money. Materials on the moon could also provide refuelling so that crewed expeditions could go out further – perhaps even all the way to Mars.
A big difference between the Apollo era – when we first explored the moon – and NASA’s return to the moon in Project Artemis is that we have discovered large reserves of ice, particularly at the South Pole and in deep craters permanently shadowed from the sun’s light. This water can be used by astronauts to drink or to grow crops with, but can also be split into the components hydrogen and oxygen – literal rocket fuel for further exploration as well as refuelling satellites orbiting Earth (for which companies are already establishing tenders!). We can also build on the moon, with rich resources of iron that researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Victoria have shown can be turned into a form of lunar steel, alongside other useful elements like titanium and silicon. Swinburne is also providing novel materials/mechanisms to reduce damage from hazardous lunar dust as part of its contribution to the ELO2 Consortium, a group of 21 organisations building Australia’s first moon rover (aptly named Roo-ver, although it will not be shaped like a kangaroo!). This turns our moon from a destination into a resupply and refuelling station, meaning we return not just to walk on the moon, but to work on it.
Various international agreements govern human interactions in space, with the Outer Space Treaty (1967), Moon Treaty (1979) and Artemis Accords (2020) being the most relevant for regulating future lunar mining; however, there are conflicting interpretations of these documents regarding whether lunar mining should be permitted as a private commercial activity, or whether having state-based mining operations would violate the non-appropriation principles of the Outer Space Treaty that prevent any country from claiming ownership of the moon or other celestial bodies. These issues will need to be resolved before any facilities are built.
Other concerns regarding lunar mining focus on sustainability and worker safety. If environmental and occupational safety regulators are all the way back on Earth, it will be difficult to enforce standards to prevent harm to the moon or its future workforce. Lunar mining could also change the visual appearance of the moon when viewed from Earth, potentially impacting various cultural traditions, particularly those of Indigenous peoples worldwide, involving the lunar cycle. This is because the dust tends to be duller and less reflective due to ‘space weathering’ than the fresher material beneath, darkening areas it lands on while excavated regions can become visibly brighter. Without care and suitable techniques being developed, our extraction methods will inevitably kick up the dust and, without any air to slow it down, this can travel far from the mine site. These issues again illustrate why rules that consider the social, cultural, ethical and legal issues surrounding off-world mining need to be established now.
Unlike the first time we raced to the moon, this is now a competition as much between startups as superpowers, with one commercial company already landing ahead of NASA. It’s important that we avoid the kind of hyper-competitive Silicon Valley approach to exploiting the moon, as it is unlikely to generate the careful, environmental safeguards that are required to create a sustainable extraction industry, which is why it’s so critical that Australia’s mining sector leads this endeavour. As one of the most regulated sectors in the world, with decades of legal oversight, Australia is well placed to demonstrate a sustainable approach to utilising the resources of the moon to further explore our solar system. This isn’t science fiction, but rather already science fact, as Rio Tinto, Woodside, Fugro and numerous Australian space companies have already formed a collaboration known as the AROSE Consortium to develop this (very) remote operations capability.
Space is not the ungoverned Wild West, and there are many examples from Earth that could be used to develop appropriate guidelines for lunar mining, and maybe even asteroid mining one day. The protections put in place for delicate environments, such as Antarctica, and international treaties like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, provide some useful analogues to draw on. The Antarctic example provides further evidence of Australia’s suitability as a leader in this policy area.
With the ever-increasing prospect of off-world mining, the new space race may turn out to have more in common with the gold rushes of the 19th century than the technological competitions of the 20th century; however, Neil Armstrong’s famous walk on the moon reminds us to be careful of the footprints we leave behind in space, ensuring we preserve our heritage for future generations.
