On Tuesday, local time, NASA announced that eight countries, including the United States, have signed an international agreement called the “Artemis Agreement”, forming what the agency said is a country committed to standardized lunar exploration. alliance.
After cooperating with the US State Department and the National Space Council to propose a set of draft rules for exploring the moon, NASA announced in May this year its intention to create the Artemis Agreement, which includes standards such as lunar mining and how to deal with the lunar surface Conflict. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that the main goal is to get everyone to agree on the issue of moon exploration and prevent any international misunderstanding or conflict in the future. He said: “What we are trying to do is to establish a code of conduct that every country can agree to.”
The countries currently signing the Artemis Agreement include Australia, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. NASA stated that they have also communicated with other countries that are interested in signing the agreement, but these seven countries will be able to pass the interagency process the fastest. This means that before the end of this year, more countries may join in.
But not all countries have reacted positively to the aforementioned agreement or moon landing plan led by the United States. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian Space Agency, said Russia is unlikely to participate in NASA’s lunar mission, calling the plan “too US-centric.” He said: “The most important thing is to build this project on the basis of international cooperation principles, which have been used in the flight of the International Space Station. If these principles are reconsidered as the basis of the plan, then Russia will consider participating.”
Long before the “Artemis Agreement” was born, countries around the world had signed a major international agreement on how to explore space, the “Outer Space Treaty.” The agreement came into effect in 1967 and stipulates that space should be explored peacefully. Countries should not place weapons of mass destruction in space, nor should they claim sovereignty over other planets. Bridenstine said: “NASA is trying to create an impetus to enable the “Outer Space Treaty” to be truly implemented.”
One thing NASA wants to make clear in the agreement is that countries can own and use resources from the moon. As part of the return to the moon project, NASA hopes to obtain lunar resources, such as lunar soil or water ice. The “Outer Space Treaty” prohibits countries from claiming sovereignty over other planets, but the US policy is that countries and companies can own materials they obtain from other planets.
The Artemis Agreement will allow countries or companies to create “safe zones” so that they can work hard to extract resources without interference. In addition, the signatories will agree to help provide emergency assistance in the event of an astronaut injury, and agree to protect historical sites (such as the Apollo 11 lunar landing zone). They will also agree to transparently announce their space program and share scientific data.
Another theme mentioned in the agreement is the concept of interoperability, that is, spacecraft from different countries should be designed to be compatible, even those countries that have not signed the agreement. For example, Rogozin, director of the Russian Space Agency, supports NASA in developing its lunar space station Gateway, so that future Russian spacecraft can also dock with the space station.
But fundamentally speaking, the “Artemis Agreement” is still just a set of guidelines, without any clear implementation mechanism. If a signatory country violates its regulations, there will be no substantive consequences. However, Bridenstine hopes that the participation of other countries will be sufficient to ensure that countries act in accordance with the agreement. He said: “I think that countries that choose to sign agreements but do not follow the rules may be under a lot of pressure.”
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