Product Code Database
The Moon bears substantial natural resources which could be exploited in the future.Yuhao Lu and Ramaa G. Reddy. Extraction of Metals and Oxygen from Lunar Soil. Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering; The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. USA. 9 January 2009. Potential lunar resources may encompass processable materials such as volatiles and , along with geologic structures such as lava tubes that, together, might enable lunar habitation. The in-situ use of resources on the Moon may provide a means of reducing the cost and risk of lunar exploration and beyond.M. Anand, I. A. Crawford, M. Balat-Pichelin, S. Abanades, W. van Westrenen, G. Péraudeau, R. Jaumann, W. Seboldt. "Moon and likely initial in situ resource utilization (ISRU) applications." Planetary and Space Science; volume 74; issue 1; December 2012, pp: 42—48. .Gerald B. Sanders, Micael Dule. NASA In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Capability Roadmap Final Report. . May 19, 2005.
Resource mapping and sample-return missions have enhanced the understanding of the potential for lunar ISRU. An assessment in 2019 concluded that knowledge was not yet sufficient to justify the commitment of large financial resources to implement an ISRU-based campaign.S. A. Bailey. "Lunar Resource Prospecting". Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland. The determination of resource availability will drive the selection of sites for human settlement.D. C. Barker. "Lunar Resources: From Finding to Making Demand." Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland.J. L. Heldmann, A. C. Colaprete, R. C. Elphic, and D. R. Andrews. "Landing Site Selection And Effects On Robotic Resource Prospecting Mission Operations." Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland.
The Moon is known to be poor in carbon and nitrogen, and rich in metals and in atomic oxygen, but their distribution and concentrations are still unknown. Further lunar exploration will reveal additional concentrations of economically useful materials, and whether or not these will be economically exploitable will depend on the value placed on them and on the energy and infrastructure available to support their extraction. For in situ resource utilization (ISRU) to be applied successfully on the Moon, landing site selection is imperative, as well as identifying suitable surface operations and technologies.
Scouting from lunar orbit by a few space agencies is ongoing, and landers and rovers are scouting resources and concentrations in situ (see: List of missions to the Moon).
| +Lunar surface chemical composition !rowspan=2 valign=top | Composition |
| 45.5% | |
| 24.0% | |
| 15.9% | |
| 5.9% | |
| 7.5% | |
| 0.6% | |
| 0.61% | |
Solar power, oxygen, and are abundant resources on the Moon. Chemical element known to be present on the lunar surface include, among others, hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti). Among the more abundant are oxygen, iron and silicon. The atomic oxygen content in the regolith is estimated at 45% by weight.Laurent Sibille, William Larson. Oxygen from Regolith. . NASA. 3 July 2012.Gregory Bennett. The Artemis Project – How to Get Oxygen from the Moon . Artemis Society International. June 17, 2001.
Studies from Apollo 17's Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment (LACE) show that the lunar exosphere contains trace amounts of hydrogen (H2), helium (He), argon (Ar), and possibly ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4). Several processes can explain the presence of trace gases on the Moon: high energy photons or solar winds reacting with materials on the lunar surface, evaporation of lunar regolith, material deposits from comets and meteoroids, and out-gassing from inside the Moon. However, these are trace gases in very low concentration. The total mass of the Moon's exosphere is roughly with a surface pressure of 3×10−15 bar (2×10−12 torr). Trace gas amounts are unlikely to be useful for in situ resource utilization.
Solar cells could be fabricated directly on the lunar soil by a medium-size (~200 kg) rover with the capabilities for heating the regolith, evaporation of the appropriate semiconductor materials for the solar cell structure directly on the regolith substrate, and deposition of metallic contacts and interconnects to finish off a complete solar cell array directly on the ground.Alex Ignatiev, Peter Curreri, Donald Sadoway, and Elliot Carol. "The Use of Lunar Resources for Energy Generation on the Moon." Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland. This process however requires the importation of potassium fluoride from Earth to purify the necessary materials from regolith.
Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) are another form of nuclear power which use the natural decay of radioisotopes rather than their induced fission. They have been used in space—including on the Moon—for decades. The usual process is to source the suitable substances from Earth, but plutonium-238 or strontium-90 could be produced on the Moon if feedstocks such as spent nuclear fuel are present (either delivered from Earth for processing or produced by local fission reactors). RTGs could be used to deliver power independent of available sunlight, for both lunar and non-lunar applications. RTGs do contain harmful toxic and radioactive materials, which leads to concerns of unintentional distribution of those materials in the event of an accident. Protests by the general public therefore often focus on the phaseout of RTGs (instead recommending alternative power sources), due to an radiophobia of the dangers of radiation.
A more theoretical lunar resource are potential fuels for nuclear fusion. Helium-3 has received particular media attention as its abundance in lunar regolith is higher than on Earth. However, thus far nuclear fusion has not been employed by humans in a controlled fashion releasing net usable energy (devices like the fusor are net energy consumers while the hydrogen bomb is not a controlled fusion reaction). Furthermore, while helium-3 is required for one possible pathway of nuclear fusion, others instead rely on nuclides which are more easily obtained on Earth, such as tritium, lithium or deuterium.
At least twenty different possible processes for extracting oxygen from lunar regolith have been described,Larry Friesen. Processes for Getting Oxygen on the Moon. . Artemis Society International. 10 May 1998. and all require high energy input: between 2–4 megawatt-years of energy (i.e. ) to produce 1,000 tons of oxygen. While oxygen extraction from metal oxides also produces useful metals, using water as a feedstock does not. One possible method of producing oxygen from lunar soil requires two steps. The first step involves the reduction of iron oxide with hydrogen gas (H2) to form elemental iron (Fe) and water (H2O). Water can then be Electrolysis to produce oxygen which can be liquified at low temperatures and stored. The amount of oxygen released depends on the iron oxide abundance in lunar minerals and glass. Oxygen production from lunar soil is a relatively fast process, occurring in a few tens of minutes. In contrast, oxygen extraction from lunar glass requires several hours.
Human oxygen consumption depends on physical activity and is affected by diet and also gravity. A commonly assumed round number for -production of humans of low to moderate physical activity assumes being exhaled per person per day. In the microgravity-environment of the International Space Station this value can be as low as per person per day. If one conservatively assumes that one mole of oxygen is consumed per mole of carbon dioxide produced (this ratio holds true for glucose but less oxygen is consumed per unit of carbon dioxide produced if fat or protein are the source of metabolic energy) 2.2 kg of carbon dioxide produced are equivalent to of oxygen consumed. The yearly oxygen need of a human would thus be roughly and per the above-mentioned energy requirements about 1.3-2.6 kilowatts would be constantly required per person to produce this amount of oxygen from lunar rocks. For comparison the average per person electricity consumption in the US in 2022 was or about 1,462 Watts.
Water may have been delivered to the Moon over geological timescales by the regular bombardment of water-bearing , and Elston, D. P. (1968) "Character and Geologic Habitat of Potential Deposits of Water, Carbon and Rare Gases on the Moon", Geological Problems in Lunar and Planetary Research, Proceedings of AAS/IAP Symposium, AAS Science and Technology Series, Supplement to Advances in the Astronautical Sciences., p. 441. or continuously produced in situ by the hydrogen ions () of the solar wind impacting oxygen-bearing minerals.
The lunar south pole features a region with crater rims exposed to near constant solar illumination, where the craters' interior are permanently shaded from sunlight, allowing for natural trapping and collection of water ice that could be mined in the future.
Water molecules () can be broken down to form molecular hydrogen () and molecular oxygen () to be used as rocket bi-propellant or produce compounds for metallurgy and chemical production processes. Just the production of propellant, was estimated by a joint panel of industry, government and academic experts, identified a near-term annual demand of 450 metric tons of lunar-derived propellant equating to 2,450 metric tons of processed lunar water, generating US$2.4 billion of revenue annually.
| +Common lunar minerals |
Free iron also exists in the regolith (0.5% by weight) naturally alloyed with nickel and cobalt and it can easily be extracted by simple magnets after grinding. This iron dust can be processed to make parts using powder metallurgy techniques, such as additive manufacturing, 3D printing, selective laser sintering (SLS), selective laser melting (SLM), and electron beam melting (EBM).
Calcium can also be used to fabricate silicon-based , requiring lunar silicon, iron, titanium oxide, calcium and aluminum.A. Ignatiev and A. Freundlich. New Architecture for Space Solar Power Systems: Fabrication of Silicon Solar Cells Using In-Situ Resources. . NIAC 2nd Annual Meeting, June 6–7, 2000.
When combined with water, lime (calcium oxide) produces significant amounts of heat. Hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) meanwhile absorbs carbon dioxide which can be used as a (non-replenishing) filter. The resulting material, calcium carbonate is commonly used as a building material on earth.
Although current evidence suggests rare-earth elements are less abundant on the Moon than on Earth,A. A. Mardon, G. Zhou, R. Witiw. "Lunar Rare-Earth Minerals For Commercialization." Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland. NASA views the mining of rare-earth minerals as a viable lunar resource because they exhibit a wide range of industrially important optical, electrical, magnetic and catalytic properties. KREEP are parts of the lunar surface richer in potassium (the " K" stands for the element symbol) rare earth elements and Phosphorus. Potassium and phosphorus are two of the three essential plant nutrients, the third being fixed nitrogen (hence NPK fertilizer) any agricultural activity on the moon would need a supply of those elements — whether sourced in situ or brought from elsewhere e.g. earth.
Since 1986 proposals to exploit the lunar regolith and use the helium-3 for nuclear fusion have been presented. Although as of 2020, functioning experimental nuclear fusion reactors have existed for decades – none of them has yet provided electricity commercially. Because of the low concentrations of helium-3, any mining equipment would need to process large amounts of regolith. Over 150 tons of regolith must be processed to obtain of helium 3. Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics Technical Report WCSAR-TR-AR3-9311-2. China has begun the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program for exploring the Moon and is investigating the prospect of lunar mining, specifically looking for the isotope helium-3 for use as an energy source on Earth. Not all authors think the extraterrestrial extraction of helium-3 is feasible, and even if it was possible to extract helium-3 from the Moon, no useful fusion power reactor has produced more energy output than the electrical energy input. However, on 13 December 2022, the United States Department of Energy announced that the National Ignition Facility "conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it." The downside remains that Helium-3 is a limited lunar resource that can be exhausted once mined.
Nitrogen (N) was measured from soil samples brought back to Earth, and it exists as trace amounts at less than 5 ppm.Richard H. Becker and Robert N. Clayton. Nitrogen abundances and isotopic compositions in lunar samples . Proceedings Lunar Science Conference, 6th (1975); pp: 2131–2149. . It was found as isotopes 14N, 15N, and 16N. As much as 87% of nitrogen found in lunar regolith may come from non-solar sources (not from the Sun) or from other planets. Comets and meteorites contribute less than ~10% of nitrogen from non-solar sources. Carbon and fixed nitrogen would be required for farming activities within a sealed biosphere. Air on earth is about 78.08% nitrogen by volume.
The lunar soil, although it poses a problem for any mechanical moving parts, can be mixed with and Epoxy in the construction of telescope mirrors up to 50 meters in diameter. Several craters near the poles are permanently dark and cold, a favorable environment for infrared telescopes.
Some proposals suggest to build a lunar base on the surface using modules brought from Earth, and covering them with lunar soil. The lunar soil is composed of a blend of silica and iron-containing compounds that may be fused into a glass-like solid using microwave radiation.
The European Space Agency working in 2013 with an independent architectural firm, tested a 3D-printed structure that could be constructed of lunar regolith for use as a Moon base.
3D-printed lunar soil would provide both "Space radiation and temperature insulation. Inside, a lightweight pressurized inflatable with the same dome shape would be the living environment for the first human Moon settlers."
In early 2014, NASA funded a small study at the University of Southern California to further develop the Contour Crafting 3D printing technique. Potential applications of this technology include constructing lunar structures of a material that could consist of up to 90-percent Lunar regolith with only ten percent of the material requiring space transport from Earth. NASA is also looking at a different technique that would involve the sintering of Lunar regolith using low-power (1500 watt) microwave radiation. The lunar material would be bound by heating to , somewhat below the melting point, in order to fuse the nanoparticle dust into a solid block that is ceramic-like, and would not require the transport of a binder material from Earth.
In the 21st century, China's Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, is executing a step-wise approach to incremental technology development and scouting for resources for a crewed base, projected for the 2030s, according to Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency. India's Chandrayaan programme is focused in understanding the lunar water cycle first, and on mapping mineral location and concentrations from orbit and in situ. Russia's Luna-Glob programme is planning and developing a series of landers, rovers and orbiters for prospecting and science exploration, and to eventually employ in situ resource utilization (ISRU) methods with the intent to construct and operate their own crewed lunar base in the 2030s.
The US has been studying the Moon for decades and in 2019 it started to implement the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to support the crewed Artemis program, both aimed at scouting and exploiting lunar resources to facilitate a long-term crewed base on the Moon, and depending on the lessons learned, then move on to a crewed mission to Mars. Moon to Mars. NASA. Accessed on 23 July 2019. NASA's lunar Resource Prospector rover was planned to prospect for resources on a polar region of the Moon, and it was to be launched in 2022. The mission concept was in its pre-formulation stage, and a prototype rover was being tested when it was cancelled in April 2018. Resource Prospector . Advanced Exploration Systems, NASA. 2017. Its science instruments will be flown instead on several commercial lander missions contracted by NASA's CLPS program, that aims to focus on testing various lunar ISRU processes by landing several payloads on multiple commercial robotic landers and rovers. The first payload contracts were awarded on February 21, 2019, and will fly on separate missions. The CLPS will inform and support NASA's Artemis program, leading to a crewed lunar outpost for extended stays.
A European non-profit organization has called for a global synergistic collaboration between all space agencies and nations instead of a "Moon race"; this proposed collaborative concept is called the Moon Village. Moon Village seeks to create a vision where both international cooperation and the commercialization of space can thrive.Jan Wörner, ESA Director General. Moon Village: A vision for global cooperation and Space 4.0 . April 2016. Moon Village: humans and robots together on the Moon . ESA. 1 March 2016.
Some early private companies like Shackleton Energy Company, Deep Space Industries, Planetoid Mines, Golden Spike Company, Planetary Resources, Astrobotic Technology, and Moon Express are planning private commercial scouting and mining ventures on the Moon.
In 2024, an American startup called Interlune announced plans to mine Helium-3 on the Moon for export back on Earth. The first mission plans to use NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to arrive on the Moon. In August 2025 Interlune indicated the Astrobotic FLIP rover will carry a multispectral camera they designed to search for Helium-3.
The five treaties and agreements
Russia, China, and the United States are party to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST), which is the most widely adopted treaty, with 104 parties. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Legal Subcommittee: Fifty-fifth session. Vienna, Austria, 4–15 April 2016. Item 6 of the provisional agenda: Status and application of the five United Nations treaties on outer space. The OST treaty offers imprecise guidelines to newer space activities such as lunar and asteroid mining,Senjuti Mallick and Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan. If space is 'the province of mankind', who owns its resources? . The Observer Research Foundation. 24 January 2019. Quote 1: "The Outer Space Treaty (OST) of 1967, considered the global foundation of the outer space legal regime, … has been insufficient and ambiguous in providing clear regulations to newer space activities such as asteroid mining." *Quote2: "Although the OST does not explicitly mention "mining" activities, under Article II, outer space including the Moon and other celestial bodies are "not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty" through use, occupation or any other means." and it therefore remains under contention whether the extraction of resources falls within the prohibitive language of appropriation or whether the use encompasses the commercial use and exploitation. Although its applicability on exploiting natural resources remains in contention, leading experts generally agree with the position issued in 2015 by the International Institute of Space Law (ISSL) stating that, "in view of the absence of a clear prohibition of the taking of resources in the Outer Space Treaty, one can conclude that the use of space resources is permitted.""Institutional Framework for the Province of all Mankind: Lessons from the International Seabed Authority for the Governance of Commercial Space Mining." Jonathan Sydney Koch. "Institutional Framework for the Province of all Mankind: Lessons from the International Seabed Authority for the Governance of Commercial Space Mining." Astropolitics, 16:1, 1–27, 2008.
The 1979 Moon Treaty is a proposed framework of laws to develop a regime of detailed rules and procedures for orderly resource exploitation.Louis de Gouyon Matignon. The 1979 Moon Agreement. . Space Legal Issues. 17 July 2019.J. K. Schingler and A. Kapoglou. "Common Pool Lunar Resources." . Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland. This treaty would regulate exploitation of resources if it is "governed by an international regime" of rules (Article 11.5), but there has been no consensus and the precise rules for commercial mining have not been established.Fabio Tronchetti. Current International Legal Framework Applicability to Space Resource Activities. . IISL/ECSL Space Law Symposium 2017, Vienna, Austria. 27 March 2017. The Moon Treaty was ratified by very few nations, and thus suggested to have little to no relevancy in international law.James R. Wilson. Regulation of the Outer Space Environment Through International Accord: The 1979 Moon Treaty. . Fordham Environmental Law Review, Volume 2, Number 2, Article 1, 2011. The last attempt to define acceptable detailed rules for exploitation, ended in June 2018, after S. Neil Hosenball, who was the NASA General Counsel and chief US negotiator for the Moon Treaty, decided that negotiation of the mining rules in the Moon Treaty should be delayed until the feasibility of exploitation of lunar resources had been established.
Seeking clearer regulatory guidelines, private companies in the US prompted the US government, and legalized space mining in 2015 by introducing the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015. H.R. 2262 – U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act. 114th Congress (2015–2016) . Sponsor: Representative McCarthy, Kevin. 5 December 2015. Similar national legislations legalizing extraterrestrial appropriation of resources are now being replicated by other nations, including Luxembourg, Japan, China, India and Russia. This has created an international legal controversy on mining rights for profit. A legal expert stated in 2011 that the international issues "would probably be settled during the normal course of space exploration." In April 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to support moon mining.
Mining
There are several models and proposals on how to exploit lunar resources, yet few of them consider sustainability.A. A. Ellery. "Sustainable Lunar In-Situ Resource Utilization = Long-Term Planning." Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland. Long-term planning is required to achieve sustainability and ensure that future generations are not faced with a barren lunar wasteland by wanton practices.G. Harmer. "Integrating ISRU Projects to Create A Sustainable In-Space Economy." Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland.A. A. Mardon, G. Zhou, R. Witiw. "Ethical Conduct in Lunar Commercialization." Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization. July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland. To be truly sustainable, lunar mining would have to adopt processes that do not use nor yield toxic material, and would minimize waste through recycling loops.
Scouting
Numerous orbiters have mapped the lunar surface composition, including Clementine, LRO, LCROSS, the Artemis orbiter, SELENE, Lunar Prospector, Chandrayaan-1, and Chang'e 1. The Luna programme and Apollo Program brought lunar samples back to Earth for analysis. As of 2019, a new "Moon race" is ongoing that features prospecting for lunar resources to support crewed bases.
Extraction methods
The extensive Lunar mare are composed of lava flows. Their mineralogy is dominated by a combination of five minerals: (CaAl2Si2O8), (), (), (), and ilmenite (), all abundant on the Moon. It has been proposed that could process the basaltic lava to break it down into pure calcium, aluminium, oxygen, iron, titanium, magnesium, and silica glass.
The European Space Agency has awarded funding to Metalysis in 2020 to further develop the FFC Cambridge process to extract titanium from regolith while generating oxygen as a byproduct. Raw lunar anorthite could also be used for making fiberglass and other ceramic products. Another proposal envisions the use of fluorine brought from Earth as potassium fluoride to separate the raw materials from the lunar rocks.
Legal status of mining
Although scattered pennants of the Soviet Union on the Moon, and United States flags were symbolically planted at their landing sites by the Apollo astronauts, no nation claims ownership of any part of the Moon's surface,
and the international legal status of mining space resources is unclear and controversial.
of international space law cover "non-appropriation of outer space by any one country, arms control, the freedom of exploration, liability for damage caused by space objects, the safety and rescue of spacecraft and astronauts, the prevention of harmful interference with space activities and the environment, the notification and registration of space activities, scientific investigation and the exploitation of natural resources in outer space and the settlement of disputes."
See also
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