Mitch Hunter-Scullion, the 25-year old founder of the Asteroid Mining Corporation, has announced that the UK risks missing out on an opportunity to provide a significant boost to the country's economy if it doesn't support efforts to extract minerals from space rocks, the Daily Star reports.
According to the newspaper, Mitch's venture, which he established in 2016, right after completing his university dissertation entitled "The Case for Asteroid Mining: Examining the economic and political benefits to be gained from mining in Space", has recently discovered Asteroid 1986DA, "which could be worth trillions", and the entrepreneur is now hoping to launch a mission there in 2027.
"I would call up on you or the government to support asteroid mining, to support space resources because we are on the verge of receiving more support internationally than from the UK Government", Mitch said. "I think when the UK Government should be providing jobs over here in the UK, we should be keeping everything we can here. We are being dragged internationally and we don’t want to be - we want to keep our jobs and our revenue in the UK - develop a space robotic centre in Motherwell but we can’t do that without the government support."
He also complained that they're currently getting "more support" from the government of Luxembourg rather than from the UK government, and that, he argued, "shouldn't be the case".
"The Earth is a spherical world, once you get beyond that, the concept of space resources really is essentially endless and it will be the countries and the companies that get there first that will monopolise over the development of a goldust industry", he added.
The newspaper points out, however, that a spokesperson for the UK Space Agency has revealed plans to gauge the "technical feasibility of mining in space" during the upcoming Luna-27 mission that will "land on the Moon and use a British instrument to test resource extraction."
"The opportunities for the UK’s growing space sector are out of this world, with clear local and national support, funding streams and a vibrant ecosystem of industry, universities and government", the spokesperson said.