In an announcement today, the Luxembourg Government has said that they have decided to take steps to become hub for mining space resources of Europe.

The tiny European country is looking forward to establish the essential legal and regulatory framework and spend in linked research and development projects. They have also in mind to invest in already-established asteroid mining companies such as the US-based Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources.

The government made the announcement shortly after the United States took a major step forward to legalize commercial space mining. In November, President Barak Obama signed the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA), as per which the US companies have the permission to maintain property rights of resources they got from outer space.

Jean-Jacques Dordain, the former Director General of the European Space Agency will advise the Luxembourg initiative. In a press conference held today, Dordain said, “This initiative is a clear demonstration that Europeans are innovative and able to take risks when the stakes are high. While futuristic, the project is based on solid grounds, i.e. technical prowess that already exists in Europe and around the world”.

The initiative regarding mining resources from space isn’t the first one the nation having a population of only more than half a million people, has pursued in the space industry. A company, which is the owner and operator of more than 50 geostationary satellites, SES is also based in Luxembourg.

The business of mining resources in space is not at all easy or cheap. CSLCA gave space mining companies some relief by letting them maintain property rights to resources extracted by them.

CSLCA has openly outlined private sector rights, which were near perfectly set in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which is the current international law on such matters.