Luxembourg’s recent Space Resources Act opened a floodgate for investment, with the ministry of economy now saying the space industry accounts for some 1.8% of the nation’s GDP, the highest ratio of any EU country. Bill Miller, CEO of US-based Deep Space Industries, which uses Luxembourg as its European headquarters told the BBC: “Along with the United States, Luxembourg has proven to be a forward-thinking country, and their success will enable private companies to conduct deep space missions." Paul Zenners, a representative of Luxembourg’s ministry of economy, which runs the government’s SpaceResources.lu initiative said: “Since February 2016, we interacted with almost 200 companies that have contacted us."

Etienne Schneider, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg released a statement in January 2019, he said: "The Grand Duchy is firmly committed to supporting the competitiveness of the commercial space industry in Europe.”

Space mining has been the realm of science fiction, but a handful of firms and governments are pursuing the idea of making it a reality. The small Duchy of Luxembourg became the first country to adopt legal regulations relating to mining in space, including from asteroids.

Famous American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said that the world’s first trillionaire “will be the person who exploits the mineral content of metallic asteroids”.

Etienne Schneider, Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy said: “Our goal is to put into place an overall framework for the exploration and commercial use of resources from ‘celestial bodies’ such as asteroids, or from the moon.”

Last year Mr Schneider explained at a series of parliamentary questions that, "Luxembourg is today a destination of choice for high-tech industries in general and for the space sector in particular.

“Since the launch of the SpaceResources.lu initiative, 20 companies in the space sector have established themselves in the Grand Duchy."

In March Russia announced that it would join Luxembourg in mining for minerals in outer space.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said: “In January we offered Luxembourg a framework agreement on cooperation in the use of mining exploration in space.

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