With most of the world is preoccupied with COVID-19 – and Trump making good on his threat to withdraw funding from the World Health Organisation (WHO) – you could be forgiven for missing the US President’s official executive order encouraging people to mine the moon, Mars and elsewhere in space for minerals (yes, really).
In 1979, a treaty was signed by various international leaders to prevent such a thing – but no signature was received from the US.
Since then, a 2015 law has been passed in the US permitting American companies to use resources from the moon and asteroids.
Trump defended the law by stating in his order: “Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space.”
The President added that he was fully prepared to block any attempts from other countries to hinder his efforts on this front.
Of course, it’s not the first time that Trump has tried to assert the US’ dominance over space. Back in 2018, he announced plans for a new military ‘Space Force’ – which is still going ahead.
It would seem that not even a one-in-100-year pandemic is not enough to bring this leader down to Earth.
