Individuals in the U.S. can now establish ownership of asteroid resources they obtain in space as President Barack Obama has signed a law recognising the right of citizens to own any space material. The law is expected to lead the improvement of commercial exploration of space objects, boosting the future of asteroid mining industry.

The asteroid mining company, Planetary Resources, applauds the decision of Obama to sign the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R. 2262) into law. An estimate shows that asteroid mining could potentially develop into trillion-dollar market.

“This legislation establishes the same supportive framework that created the great economies of history, and will encourage the sustained development of space,” said Eric Anderson, co-founder and co-chairman of Planetary Resources, Inc.

The announcement coincides with the development of a new technology that would help asteroid miners to find rare materials on space objects. The device, called gamma-ray spectroscope, was designed to detect gold, platinum, and other rare, valuable materials on asteroids and moons floating around the solar system.

Gamma rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, more powerful and penetrating than light. Researchers said that the new gamma-ray spectroscope would be useful as all objects in the solar system are bombarded by cosmic rays.

The spectroscope can detect the intensity and wavelengths of gamma rays from a surface of an space object. This could help scientists identify the concentration of gold and crystals like diamonds, as wells as rock-forming elements, such as oxygen, magnesium, silicon and iron.

A team of scientists from Vanderbilt and Fisk Universities, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Planetary Science Institute developed the concept of the new technology.

“With our proposed system it should be possible to measure sub-surface elemental abundances accurately, and to do it much more cheaply because our sensors weigh less and require less power to operate,” said Keivan Stassun, a professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt.

The new gamma-ray spectroscope could also be used by planetary scientists to obtain new details about the chemical composition of the asteroids, comets, moons and minor planets in the solar system. First commercial missions to nearby asteroids are expected to launch by 2020.

U.S. Congressman Bill Posey said that the new law for commercial exploration of space objects “will help pave the way for exciting future commercial space [endeavours].” He added that it would provide Americans willing to invest in space mining the legal certainty that they can keep “the fruits of their [labour].”

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