Nasa is looking for private companies who want to help it get to the moon.

Some are saying this is the first step on the path to mining the moon for its rare earth metals and other resources. But the actual announcement from Nasa doesn't mention mining at all. "It can't be said that Nasa are looking to mine the moon just yet," Professor Ian Crawford of Birkbeck University, London, told BuzzFeed.

Gregory H. Revera / Via en.wikipedia.org

NASA anticipates that industry will eventually be able to provide commercial cargo transportation services to the lunar surface to both public and private customers. In addition to supporting commercial activities on the Moon, robotic lunar lander capabilities would also enable science, exploration, and other missions of interest to the larger scientific and academic communities.

Via prod.nais.nasa.gov

"If there was a private capability of landing on the moon, there would be a lot of scientific interest in that," says Crawford.

Helium-3 is not abundant on Earth, but some estimates say there should be millions of tons of it on the moon.

But we don't yet know enough about what potential prospectors would find if they went to the moon to exploit its natural resources. "It's too early to say they would find anything," says Crawford.

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