The recent Lunar Exploration mission of the US, Russia, China, India, and Japan are a signal that the prize of the Space Race 2.0 is unlocking of the resources on the Moon.
The missions and operations will take decades, not years, but are underway and highly focussed.
The extraction of resources requires high-energy processing of Lunar regolith, a robust CisLunar communication and logistics architecture, and the steering of capital to commercial missions that have tangible and profitable objectives, e.g. refining Oxygen from the Moon’s dust for human habitats, extracting platinum group metals and other resources from regolith to be 3D printed on the Moon, or ultimately returned to Earth.
Space Resources, from filtering valuable resources from Lunar regolith, to harnessing the energy of the sun in space, are industrial and empire enablers.
The European Space Ventures investment case for Space Resources is to:
- Accelerate our existing joint ventures and partnerships for Lunar Resources Exploration, to identify locations on the Moon that have the potential to be Billion Dollar resources operations, and create missions to establish the presence for resources extraction operations.
- Invest in innovative companies that explore the Moon, or are developing the hardware to harness energy, such as Space Based Solar Power.
How Realistic is Space Resources?
We field investor queries from various investors regarding the viability of space mining. We have focused on Lunar Mining, and we are not alone.
NASA developed a Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to foster innovation in Lunar exploration, and ESA has allocated sufficient capital to launch multiple large Lunar Landers, called Argonaut.
Blue Origin has its own Blue Alchemist program to develop a molten regolith electrolysis process to produce solar cells and power transmission cables from lunar dust and rocks. Many commercial space-tech companies are positioning themselves as Lunar Logistics providers (Intuitive Machines, Firefly Aerospace, iSpace) based on their flight and Lunar landing heritage, in expectation of ongoing resources exploration and extraction operations.
ESV via is partner Space Ventures Investors is a supporter of Lunar Resources Registry UG, a European early-stage Lunar Mining Exploration company.