House Republicans looking to expand mining want to turn Congress’ attention to extracting valuable materials from the moon and other celestial bodies.
Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, who chairs the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, is holding a hearing Tuesday focused on space mining and growing competition with adversaries like China and Russia.
The subcommittee during the hearing — dubbed “Full Blast: Contrasting Momentum in the Space Mining Economy to the Terrestrial Mining Regulatory Morass” — will hear from academics and executives, including the head of a California startup that’s working with President Donald Trump’s top adviser, Elon Musk, to mine asteroids.
Slated to appear is Misael Cabrera, who directs the University of Arizona’s School of Mining and Mineral Resources, and Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School.
