American space agency NASA plans to start mining resources on the moon within the next 10 years, The Guardian said in a report. It plans to excavate soil from there by 2032. The news comes at a time when the agency is preparing to send humans to the moon by 2025 under its ambitious Artemis mission. It will be the first time humans will land on the moon since NASA's Apollo 17 astronauts since 1972. The mission will also carry the first women and person of colour.
NASA will send a test drill into space with plans to harvest lunar soil and setting up a processing plant on the lunar surface.
"We are trying to invest in the exploration phase, understand the resources... to (lower) risk such that external investment makes sense that could lead to development and production," The Guardian quoted Gerald Sanders, a rocket scientist with NASA's Johnson Space Centre, as saying during a conference in Brisbane.
"We are literally just scratching the surface," Mr Sanders added.
Reuters said the first customers are expected to be commercial rocket companies who could use the moon's surface for fuel or oxygen.
In a 2015 article published on its website, NASA had described why it plans to mine the moon and how the "lunar gold rush" could work.
Citing data from geological surveys, the space agency said moon contains three crucial elements: water, helium and rare earth metals.
NASA said while water can be converted into rocket fuel, helium can help in developments in the energy sector, like nuclear fusion. About rare earth metals found on the lunar surface - scandium and yttrium - NASA said them on moon could give a boost to modern electronics sector. Both elements are found in high concentrations in moon rocks.
NASA also said that moon has a mass of 73 quintal tonnes and if they mine 1 metric tonne from its every day, it will take 220 million years to deplete 1 per cent of the moon's mass.
