{"id":19555,"date":"2015-11-25T18:58:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T10:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/asteroid-mining-riches-await-president-obama-signs-space-resource-bill-into-law\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T18:58:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T10:58:44","slug":"asteroid-mining-riches-await-president-obama-signs-space-resource-bill-into-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/asteroid-mining-riches-await-president-obama-signs-space-resource-bill-into-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid mining riches await: President Obama signs space resource bill into law"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_214261\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-214261\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-214261 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/151125-asteroid-620x349.jpg\" alt=\"Asteroid mining\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/151125-asteroid-620x349.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/151125-asteroid-1240x697.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-214261\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s concept shows a spacecraft mining an asteroid. (Credit: Bryan Versteeg \/ Deep Space Industries)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>President Barack Obama today put his signature on a law supporting the rights of space miners to extract, use and sell resources from asteroids, the moon, Mars&nbsp;and&nbsp;other celestial bodies&nbsp;\u2013 giving space-minded entrepreneurs something extra to be thankful for.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the single greatest recognition of property rights in history,\u201d Eric Anderson, co-founder and co-chairman of Redmond-based Planetary Resources, said in a news release. \u201cThis legislation establishes the same supportive framework that created the great economies of history, and will encourage the sustained development of space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anderson\u2019s company has said the asteroid mining industry could&nbsp;eventually grow to trillions of dollars a year \u2013 but that\u2019s dependent on the establishment of a spacefaring infrastructure that can use&nbsp;the off-earth&nbsp;water and other raw materials from near-Earth asteroids.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also dependent on the establishment a legal infrastructure that lets miners keep what they get. That\u2019s what the newly signed law, known as the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R.2262), is expected to start doing.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Market and the Mission of Planetary Resources\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KjYYC-M0hxA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The law addresses nearer-term issues&nbsp;as well: It extends&nbsp;the current \u201clearning period\u201d for the regulation of private-sector spaceships such as&nbsp;Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo&nbsp;and Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard&nbsp;to 2023; confirms that the International Space Station should stay in operation until at least 2024; and continues&nbsp;the indemnification of commercial space launches through 2025.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s the legislation\u2019s implications for space property rights that have stirred up the most attention among&nbsp;lawmakers as well as entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe natural resources of our solar system have great potential to facilitate and support our human endeavors, both in outer space and on Earth,\u201d U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said in a statement. \u201cCommercial space companies in the United States are making significant investments to develop technical capabilities that will allow us to explore and use outer space resources. This bill enables this new industry and provides guidance for future entrepreneurs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she was \u201cproud that local businesses are once again at the forefront of new industries that will help our economy continue to grow.\u201d And U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., said the law would give Washington state\u2019s space ventures&nbsp;\u201cthe framework they need to continue to innovate, and to keep the United States at the head of this growing, global industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hannah Kerner, executive director of the Space Frontier Foundation, said the newly signed law \u201cextends our&nbsp;free-market values into space, which is absolutely essential if we are going to succeed at creating an environment where commercial space businesses thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Planetary Resources has been testing prototypes for spacecraft that can identify and eventually extract materials from near-Earth asteroids, including a mini-satellite that\u2019s due to be deployed next year. But it\u2019s not the only company in the space mining business.&nbsp;Another such venture is&nbsp;Deep Space Industries, which also issued a statement praising today\u2019s signing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the future, humanity will look back at this bill being passed as one of the hallmarks of the opening of space to the people,\u201d Deep Space Industries\u2019 chairman, Rick Tumlinson, said in the statement. \u201cEven while surrounded by so much bad news, in the long view of history, it is this sort of positive action that changes civilization, and while much else will not be remembered, the time when we began to unlock the wealth of the solar system for the people of Earth will be seen as a turning point. This bill is an important key to that happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;bill was&nbsp;written to sidestep the larger issue of claiming sovereignty over other celestial bodies&nbsp;\u2013 which would be forbidden under the terms of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. Instead, it establishes a legal right to resources that a U.S. citizen may recover in space, consistent with current U.S. law and&nbsp;the United States\u2019&nbsp;international obligations.<\/p>\n<p>It calls upon the&nbsp;president to outline how the government will handle space resource rights, in a report to be submitted to Congress within 180 days.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Let's Create History Together\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/erP8BUs4gyI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Although the discussion has focused on near-Earth asteroids, the law also applies to resources on other celestial bodies.&nbsp;That fact wasn\u2019t lost on Naveen Jain, the Seattle-area entrepreneur who\u2019s the founder and executive chairman of Moon Express. His company plans&nbsp;to send private-sector spacecraft to the moon, potentially winning a share of the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize&nbsp;in the process.<\/p>\n<p>Jain told GeekWire that today\u2019s signing is \u201c<span style=\"line-height: 1.625;\">a great milestone for Moon Express and the entire private commerce industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.625;\">\u201cI am super excited that we now have clarity for Moon Express to be able to harvest and own lunar resources that can be used for the benefit of humanity,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cThe moon is our sister planet that has an incredible amount of natural resources, including helium-3 that can provide for clean energy for many generations for the entire planet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s concept shows a spacecraft mining an asteroid. (Credit: Bryan Versteeg \/ Deep Space Industries) President Barack Obama today put his signature on a law supporting the rights of space miners to extract, use and sell resources from asteroids, the moon, Mars&nbsp;and&nbsp;other celestial bodies&nbsp;\u2013 giving space-minded entrepreneurs something extra to be thankful for. \u201cThis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4927,1519,291,5088,4820,4467],"class_list":["post-19555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid-mining","tag-asteroids","tag-commercial-space","tag-deep-space-industries","tag-planetary-resources","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}