Trump’s space order shows why the Outer Space Treaty must go

In mid-December, the White House released an executive order establishing the second Trump administration’s space policy. In the order, the president outlines a policy to “secure the Nation’s vital economic and security interests” and “unleash commercial development” in the stars.

Mastery over space and its riches will go to the nations able to pursue their interests within that domain and defend them.

The order follows on the Department of Energy’s “first-ever government purchase of a natural resource from space” last May. If successful, the procurement of lunar helium-3 by 2029 promises to be the first nugget in a 21st-century gold rush. With the value of the isotope reaching $20 million per kilogram by some estimates, prospecting and settlement of the final frontier — a goal of President