The small European country, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, has announced plans to create a European Space Resources Innovation Center (ESRIC), which should lay the foundations for the development of extraterrestrial resources, and intends to become a European center for space mining, follows from the message ESRIC. p>
"The global space mining market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 23.7% over the forecast period 2020 to 2026," Research Insights analysts say in their new report on the prospects for commercial minerals mining in space.
Experts have long emphasized the mineral value of asteroids. They claim that celestial bodies are filled with iron ore, nickel and precious metals in much higher concentrations than on Earth, making up a trillion dollar market.
For example, the asteroid Psyche, located between Mars and Jupiter, is mainly composed of iron and nickel. There was it is hypothesized that a piece of iron of this size could be worth about $ 10,000 quadrillion, which is more than the entire economy on our planet.
European scientists have announced plans to start mining on the Moon as early as 2025, although they will not be mining gold and diamonds, but waste-free nuclear energy, which is believed to be worth trillions of dollars.
Market Research predicted that industrial development of asteroids would enhance the ability of humans to colonize planets. Plus, it could provide better ways to track dangerous space objects that could collide with Earth.
In collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), Luxembourg aims to make the center of innovation a globally recognized center of excellence in the scientific, technical, business and economic aspects of the use of space resources, including water on the moon, as well as metals and asteroid minerals .
This center, located in Luxembourg, is also expected to foster economic growth by supporting commercial initiatives and startups, offering a business incubation component and enabling technology transfer between space and non-space industries.
Luxembourg is one of the richest countries in the eurozone and has a long history of space industry that plays a significant role in the development of satellite communications.
Although its ambition to become a significant player in the asteroid industry is only four years old, the country has already taken important steps towards that goal.
In June 2016, Luxembourg agreed to buy a large stake in the American asteroid mining company Planetary Resources.
The country also announced a € 200 million line of credit to entrepreneurial space companies to establish their European headquarters within its borders.
Earlier, the government reached an agreement with another American company, Deep Space Industries, to send missions to explore for water and minerals in outer space. Both sides are currently developing Prospector-X, a small experimental spacecraft that will test technologies for searching and mining near-Earth asteroids from 2021.
Luxembourg did not stop there. In 2018, he created his own space agency (LSA) to accelerate the exploration and commercial exploitation of near-Earth objects.
