ESA plans to mine moon

The project will ‘examine the possibility of going to the Moon before 2025 and starting to work there’, says ESA.

The plan is to eventually mine regolith.

‘As ESA and other agencies prepare to send humans back to the Moon – this time to stay – technologies that make use of materials available in space (in-situ resource utilisation) are seen as key to sustainability, and a stepping stone in humankind’s adventure to Mars and farther into the Solar System,’ says ESA, ‘in the longer term, resources in space may even be used on Earth.’

‘Regolith is an ore from which it is possible to extract water and oxygen, thus enabling an independent human presence on the Moon to be envisaged, capable of producing the fuel needed for more distant exploratory missions,’ says the organisation.

Ariane is hoping Ariane 64, the 4-booster version of Ariane 6, would carry out the project.

‘The use of space resources could be a key to sustainable lunar exploration and this study is part of ESA’s comprehensive plan to make Europe a partner in global exploration in the next decade – a plan we will put to our Ministers for decision later this year at the Space19+ Conference,’ says  Dr. David Parker; Director, Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA.