In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration issued an executive order Monday calling on the planet’s leaders to join forces to extract the natural resources of another world: the moon.
The “Executive Order on Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources” is the latest White House step paving the way for NASA to return astronauts to the surface of the moon as part of its Artemis mission.
“It shall be the policy of the United States to encourage international support for the public and private recovery and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law,” the order reads.
This isn’t a new policy per se. Rather, the goal appears to be laying out the legal framework through which the United States plans to mine the moon in the coming years, and perhaps Mars as well.
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