Orbit Fab to donate regolith to lunar resources trust

WASHINGTON — Orbit Fab, a startup that is developing an infrastructure for in-space refueling of spacecraft, announced plans to purchase a small amount of lunar regolith and transfer it to a trust to promote sustainable management of lunar resources.

The Colorado-based company said July 26 that it signed a letter of intent with Breaking Ground, a trust established last year seeking to develop approaches for managing lunar resources. Under the agreement, Orbit Fab will purchase lunar regolith from another company and donate it to Breaking Ground to hold in trust.

The intent of the transfer is to create a model for transfer of lunar resources and to develop management approaches for such resources that are “cooperative, adaptive, plural, and balanced to fit the needs of as many stakeholders as possible,” the two organizations said in a statement.