When the Luxembourg’s recent law regulating space mining came into force on Tuesday, the nation will already be working on making the science-fiction-sounding mission a reality; said the deputy prime minister.
This regulation will make Luxembourg the introductory nation to supply a legal structure to make sure that personal drivers could be confident about their rights they have in the space, said the replacement head of state.
This law is based on the premise that space resources are capable of being owned by individuals and private companies and establishes the procedures for authorizing and supervising the space exploration missions.
Etienne Schneider told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that “When I launched the initiative a year ago, people thought I was mad”.
Schneider who is also the Luxembourg’s economy minister said- “But for us, we see it as a business that has a return on investment in the short-term, the medium-term, and the long-term”.
Luxembourg in June 2016 backed up 200 million euros to restore rare minerals from space. Schneider claims that the new technologies are already creating markets that space mining could supply; while that goal is kept at least 15 years off.
According to Schneider, lifting any kilogram from Earth to orbit costs between 10,000 to 15,000 euros but the firm could cut these costs by recycling the floating parts flying in space and the debris of old satellites. He says that a firm from a small European country that is best known for its fund raising management and private banking sector will be working on such deals on Tuesday with the security of legal framework in place. He states that “I am already in discussions with fund owners for more than 1 billion euros which they want to dedicate to space exploration over here in Luxembourg“.
Also, he is confident on “in the coming 10 years the official language in space will be Luxembourgish.”