Important Innovations

  NASA Will Pay Thousands for Moon Dirt and Moon Rocks Source:  Moon stock image  Moon Commercial Exploration About to Expand NASA wants to mine the Moon. And to do so, it just announced that it's looking for companies to do lunar mining.  This is a bold bid by NASA to start the commercial development of the Moon.  The initial purpose is to help US astronauts establish permanent bases on the Moon and "live off the land".  And, then for NASA to move forward to Mars where astronauts would need to live off the resources available there. The new program to find valuable resources on the Moon and later Mars is part of NASA's Artemis Project and it is open to international companies. International Companies Encouraged to Participate NASA is looking for private companies, that are already part of space explorations, to collect rocks and dirt from the lunar surface and sell them to NASA, as part of a technology development project.  NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted:

Who Owns Commercial Rights in Space? Planet Snatchers Source:  NASA Russia & US Intergalactic War of Words This could be a script for a new George Lucas  "Star Wars" movie. But it's not science fiction.   It's the latest global news on space and it's a big fight. The Russian Space Agency Roscosmos has accused President Donald Trump of creating a basis for  snatching planets.  At issue is an Executive Order the President just signed detailing US policy on commercial mining in space.  From Russia's perspective, the Executive Order slams the concept that space is  the property of all of humanity. At Stake - Intergalactic Money in Trillions of Dollars Experts believe that the mineral deposits that space  contains could be worth trillions of dollars.  Mr. Trump's Order states that the US will negotiate bilateral and multilateral statements and agreements on "safe and sustainable operations for the publ

Mining the Skies Source:  Planetary Resources Targeting Asteroids It may sound like Star Trek but some US companies, innovators and dreamers are looking skyward to a future of mining highly valuable minerals in space, along with human colonization of space.  A favorite mining target is asteroids known to be rich in high value metals like platinum. Planetary Resources Planetary Resources, based in Redmond, Washington, is an American company that has been advised by Google's Larry Page and film director James Cameron.  It's deeply involved in the world's first commercial deep space exploration mission.  It's targeting asteroid mining because the company believes that is the key first step to establishing the groundwork for human colonization of space. Satellite Probes Underway The company has launched satellite probes and has selected the most promising asteroid targets for water resources that they intend to mine. They say the first need is to unlock wat