(vb/STH) – Space is going to be Luxembourgish. At least if Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider gets his way.

As the world studies the small country's ambitions with mild scepticism, US news network CNN recently aired a short report about Luxembourg's fantastic plans.

Presenting Luxembourg as tiny, landlocked and picturesque, journalist Richard Quest tells Minister Schneider in the video that when he came up with this idea, “they thought you were barking mad”. Schneider agrees that it takes some madness to have visions and take a country forward.

Confronted with the huge technological and financial challenge, Schneider presents himself as self-confident, giving the example of computers that cost a fortune in the seventies and are far less powerful than today's smartphones to prove a point about technological advancements.

Luxembourg, which wants to be in the driver's seat in this new developing sector, will team up with companies in the United States among others for this project.

Frederic Baker from Deep Space Industries sums up the technological challenge: “the challenge for us will be to actually land on the asteroid – not bounce... but land”.

Even if the success of this hugely ambitious project can't be predicted, the reportage concludes “the determination, technological know-how and money, are moving to Luxembourg”.