Robotic landers could start mining the moon as early as 2020

A permanent robotic mining outpost on the moon could be on the cards as early as 2020. The Florida-based company Moon Express has raised over $45 million in funding for three expeditions that will culminate in a mission to mine moon rocks and return them to Earth. Because the laws governing usage of resources in space are vague, a profit-driven mission of this kind could cause international controversy. "It's something that is being discussed internationally now, but there is no agreed-upon answer, and I'm not sure there's going to be," says Henry Hertzfeld at the George Washington University Space Policy Institute in Washington, DC. Moon Express was founded in 2010 with the aim of winning the Google Lunar XPRIZE, a $20 million award for the first privately funded vehicle to land on the moon.