Last year, the senate quietly passed the Space Act of 2015, which grants US citizens or corporations the right to claim non-living natural resources – including water and minerals – mined out in space.
Today, Luxembourg is setting aside funds to do just that. As the WSJ reports, Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider said in an interview that the government has set aside roughly $223 million in public funds in order to support projects such as the mining of asteroids.
Noting that mining asteroids "sounded like complete science fiction", the government now plans to create the necessary legal and regulatory framework to persuade investors backing companies to set up shop in Luxembourg, and two startup companies have already announced that they have decided to do just that. Government officials and space experts from both sides of the Atlantic are scheduled to have a press conference to lay out the specifics of the initiative according to the WSJ.
In the mid-1980's Luxembourg took ownership in a fledgling satellite company that grew into what is now international satellite-provider SES SA. Now Schneider says the country plans to invest in mining asteroids, and that more funds could be put into the project to help underwrite R&D carried out inside the country aimed at sending commercial spacecraft beyond Earth's orbit.
"We will take more money if we need it" Schneider said.
Luxembourg is going it alone instead of waiting to join in with the European Space Agency or other organizations because "it could take years to find a common way or point of view" said Schneider, who added "we have quite a lot of experience in these international issues."
The country intends to share information and cooperate with the US and other like minded countries.
As was written on Zero Hedge years ago, the question that needs to be asked is why are we not focused on finding smaller solutions with more immediate effects instead of grandiose solutions with long timelines.
Like a financial system that refuses to accept that tightly coupled structures are risky, and that risk itself grows with in tandem with complexity, the cornucopian abundance approach simply won’t take no for an answer. That means instead of focusing on smaller solutions with more immediate effects, grandiose solutions with long timelines are pursued instead.
But, since we're so focused on misallocation of capital, why don't we take advantage of NIRP and go for the grand-slam. Let's just go ahead and build the Imperial Death Star – that should boost global GDP.
via http://ift.tt/1t98Dvw Tyler Durden