The use of lunar space resources
3 July 2019
SDA Bocconi - Milan
The Moon landing represented, as Neil Armstrong proclaimed, “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. Fifty years ago, the space race enriched us with knowledge and awareness. Now entrepreneurs are ready to return to the Moon in order to exploit its resources, such as water and minerals. However, many high-risk factors, such as uncertainties about presence and concentration of space resources, technology readiness, and high initial investment affect these projects. During the event, we will address some outstanding issues about the new Moon race
State of knowledge of available resources on the Moon (Patrizia Caraveo):
Information from previous Moon missions
Ice resources on the Moon’s poles
Identification of commercial uses of Moon’s resources (Andrea Sommariva):
The potential in space and Earth markets
Necessary conditions for public-private partnerships
Appropriate mechanism to leverage the contribution of commercial actors to achieve space-mining objectives
The objective is to highlight the conditions, the benefits, and the obstacle to the development of Moon mining.