How new space race threatens to turn the Moon into the next ‘Wild West’ – as competition for resources could see nations turn their gaze to the stars [Video]

05:06 EST 18 Feb 2024 , updated 06:33 EST 18 Feb 2024

The race for minerals threatens to turn the Moon into the ‘Wild West’ as the competition for resources could see nationals turning their gaze to the stars. 

The Moon is a multi-quadrillion-pound hotbed of unearthed riches from rare Earth metals used in smartphones to helium that could perhaps provide an invaluable source of energy.

That includes H20 as deposits of frozen water – which could be used not only for drinking but also broken down into hydrogen for fuel or oxygen to breathe – are scattered across the moon’s south pole.

There has been unease among scientists about how the moon’s resources are going to be policed after previous attempts to govern it, including the Moon Agreement of 1979, have failed to garner international consensus, with neither the US, Russia or China signing it.

‘A space Wild West is coming into existence,’ British Philosopher AC Grayling has now warned in …