▲ proposal of lunar base for obtaining helium, taken from ExplainingTheFuture.com [Christopher Barnatt].

GLOBAL AFFAIRS JOURNAL / Emili J. Blasco

[8-page document. downloadin PDF]

INTRODUCTION

The economic interest in space resources, or at least the reasonable expectation about the profitability of obtaining them, explains to a large extent the growing involvement of private investment in space travel.

Beyond the industry related to artificial satellites, of great commercial strength, and also that which serves scientific and defense purposes, where the state sector continues to play a leading role, the possibility of exploiting high-value raw materials present in celestial bodies - from entrance, in the asteroids closest to the Earth and on the Moon - has awakened a kind of gold rush that is encouraging the new space degree program .

The epic of the new space barons -Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos- has monopolized the public narrative, but alongside them there are other New Space Players, with varied profiles. Behind all of them there is a growing group of capitalist partners and restless investors willing to risk assets in the expectation of profits.

To speak of a fever is certainly exaggerated because the real economic benefit that can be achieved from space mining - obtaining platinum, for example, or lunar helium - has yet to be demonstrated, because although the technology is becoming cheaper, which financially allows us to take new steps in outer space, bringing tons of materials to Earth has a cost that in most cases detracts from the monetary sense of the operation.

It would be enough, however, that in certain situations it would be profitable to increase the issue of space missions, and it is assumed that this traffic by itself would generate the need for an infrastructure abroad, at least with stations where to refuel fuel - so expensive to raise to the firmament -, manufactured from subject raw material found in space (the water of the lunar poles could be transformed into propellant). It is this expectation, with a certain basis of reasonableness, that fuels the investments being made.

In turn, the increased space activity and the skill to obtain the sought-after resources project beyond our planet the geopolitical concepts developed for the Earth. The location of countries (there are particularly suitable locations for space launches) and the control of certain routes (the succession of the most convenient orbits for flights) are part of the new astropolitics.