12/8/2017 Etienne Schneider — POLITICO 28 Class of 2018 - POLITICO

Aout Cookies: POLITICO uses cookies to personalize and improve our reader experience.  using our wesite or  closing this message ox, ou ×
agree to our use of cookies as descried in our cookie polic.

   TH LIT  

elect Personalit

elect Personalit…

12

tienne chneider
TH PAC MINR

LUXMOURG

Illustration  Jaa Nicel for POLITICO

https://www.politico.eu/list/politico-28-2018-ranking/etienne-schneider/ 1/4
12/8/2017 Etienne Schneider — POLITICO 28 Class of 2018 - POLITICO

tienne Schneider wants to turn tiny Luxembourg into an outer space powerhouse. As the grand duchy’s deputy prime

E
minister and economy minister, he has worked to establish the country as a leader in off-Earth mining — attracting
companies aiming to harvest asteroids for their minerals. “I tell my European colleagues, we cannot leave this to the United
States again and to Asia,” he says. “Europe has to play a role.”

Schneider, 46, first developed an interest in the subject shortly after he first
became a minister in 2012, following a meeting with NASA researchers. “I was
wondering what they smoked before meeting me,” he said. “[But] from that point
on I dug deeper and deeper into the topic.”

Fast forward to last July, when Luxembourg passed draft legislation giving
companies the right to keep space junk from near-Earth objects such as asteroids.
Up next: Schneider wants to get the U.N.’s Outer Space Treaty, first signed in
1967, updated to better specify who has the right to mined resources.

Space, says Schneider, should be like the international waters — no country

owns the sea, but anyone can fish. He lists Switzerland, Portugal and the
UAE as countries sympathetic to his view of a harmonious orbital order.
Talks, he adds, are ongoing with Japan, Russia and China.

To date, some 400 kilograms of lunar rock have been brought down to earth,
but in the future, enterprising miners could exploit passing asteroids to
support missions across the cosmos, in addition to bringing home precious
metals like platinum and potentially even water.

That’s at least a decade away. In the meantime, Schneider is pushing to

secure the right for companies to use space resources to do things like fuel
satellites owned by Luxembourg-based communications company SES. “We
are the smallest country, but we are in the driving seat,” he says.

tienne chneider and NATO ecretar-General Jens
toltenerg in russels | tephanie Lecocq/PA

https://www.politico.eu/list/politico-28-2018-ranking/etienne-schneider/ 2/4
12/8/2017 Etienne Schneider — POLITICO 28 Class of 2018 - POLITICO

Check the full listing of the POLITICO 28 Class of 2018, and read an explanation of what this ranking means.

https://www.politico.eu/list/politico-28-2018-ranking/etienne-schneider/ 3/4
12/8/2017 Etienne Schneider — POLITICO 28 Class of 2018 - POLITICO

https://www.politico.eu/list/politico-28-2018-ranking/etienne-schneider/ 4/4