Senate passes Space Act of 2015!

The Senate passed the Space Act of 2015 in order to allow asteroid mining. Lately, we’ve reported stories such as companies improving space travel and customizing space travel for companies to launch small satellites for a variety of purposes. Now the Senate has passed a bill that is defining rules so that companies would be allowed to extract resources from asteroids. This bill is expected to be approved by the House of Representatives before being moved on the president to sign. This is an exciting new measure that will lead to discussion, resource mining, and rules of engagement in space for the future.

Professor Frans von der Dunk is a teacher of space law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law’s LLM program in space, cyber and telecommunications law. Von der Dunk said the act was an “intriguing and exciting first careful step towards allowing private enterprise, taking into due account the international and public interests in space to start preparing for a new category of space activities: harvesting extraterrestrial resources.”

This newest legislation could further discussion regarding rules of engagement for how companies mining rare minerals from space can avoid interfering with other space resources. The mining could be harmful to other space activities. While not perfect, this act will cheapen space costs and allow rare materials to be harvested and brought back to Earth.

This is a wonderful new development that will allow for more ventures into space. These ventures could lead to more resources and contribute to more growth in space development for harvesting these resources. It’s an excellent opportunity to expand the space industry for private sector forces and create new demand for further education and innovation for this field.