Rare Earth Battle: Trump's Dream of Space Mining

For rare earth resources, Trump recently signed an executive order stating America has the right for space mining to explore and use resources from outer space. If the US successfully exploits rare minerals in outer space, it will break the export monopoly by countries such as China and Russia. The US president also said space is not a common area for resources and doesn't need the permission of international agreements to get started.

BBC reporters Manish Pandey and Michael Baggs report that the exploitation of outer space resources sounds like a fantasy, but experts say these resources have practical uses.

One of the uses of space gas stations is that the resources of outer space can become an intergalactic petrol station. American journalist Sarah Cruddas, who has studied outer space for many years, said that having a petrol station in space means rockets can travel further into space before worrying about running out of fuel. Exploring deeper is important because space has lots of resources that can be used to benefit our planet.

Benjamin Sovacool, a professor at the University of Sussex in the UK, said that as more and more people in the world use renewable energy, the demand for materials such as rare earth, lithium, aluminum, and cobalt has soared, and the stock of these materials on the earth is limited.

He believes that developing these resources in space can help build items such as electric cars, which will be good for the environment in the long-term. Metals such as lithium or cobalt are mainly in places like China, Russia or Congo. And it's difficult to get them.

He says it can be complicated trying to source materials from different suppliers around the world, all of which have different rules. Mining on the Moon, with one entity, might be easier, but Benjamin does warn that in space mining doesn't offer a short-term fix for climate change on earth.

The current laws governing outer space are similar to those governing the international high seas. One of the reasons behind President Trump's decision to mine on the Moon could be a lack of access to minerals for the US compared with other parts of the world.

In the Sino-US trade war, China stated that it would reduce the export of rare earth, which is quite important in the process of manufacturing technology products such as core tablets, smartphones, and electric vehicles. Scholars believe that people make is space is the only place left to go because we will eventually mess up our Earth so much. Trump's order is clear that international law won't apply to US efforts in space mining, but laws about what humans can do off-planet are less well defined.

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