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Do poor countries have any say on how natural resources on the moon are to be harvested? Poor countries have no mean to harvest natural resources on the moon at the scale large developed countries will be able to do in the future. Is there any law or mechanisms that tries to level the playing field?

Sayaman
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    This is probably unanswerable because lunar mining remains a hypothetical. There are the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Treaty that establish rules, but they’re decades old and have never been tested. Are you asking what the current law is (which is likely to be irrelevant once lunar mining actually becomes practical) or for speculation on what would happen at that time, which is likely opinion-based or off-topic for speculation? – divibisan Jun 12 '21 at 18:44

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No.

There are a couple of relevant treaties: The Outer Space Treaty forbids military use of the moon: you can't build a missile base on the moon, for example. It doesn't say much about mining. It says that countries can use the moon peaceably, and countries can't claim part of the moon as their national territory, but countries that establish bases on the moon can exploit the local resources.

The Moon Treaty requires that countries develop agreements for mining, but doesn't say what the agreement should be. However since only 18 countries have ratified it (and none of the ratifying countries has the technology to land on the moon) it is largely irrelevant in international law.

You may be thinking of mining as "going to the moon and bringing rare moon minerals back to Earth". It almost certainly won't be like this: the elements on the moon are nearly all far far easier to mine on Earth. Moon rocks have, for example, a good amount of titanium, but it is much easier to obtain titanium from Earth, or even from an asteroid then from the moon. Instead, lunar mining will be to create lunar bases and the local resources will be used in-situ, or to travel on to further destinations. Poor countries have no means of harvesting the resources of the moon, but also no need as there are plenty of the same resources on Earth. (The exception is Helium-3, but this only becomes a valuable resource if fusion power is developed)

So there is no requirement for countries to "level the playing field". This is just as true in lunar exploitation as it is in every other human endeavour.

James K
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