NASA executives said they are negotiating with several countries to be part of the Artemis Program which aims to take people to the Moon by 2024. The Artemis Accords collaboration will ensure that astronauts from numerous countries around the world land on the lunar surface as well as take part in establishing a space station called the Gateway in lunar orbit.
While the United States would lead the space efforts, NASA would demand that any participating countries consent to 10 basic conventions regarding space activities, transparency, and release of scientific data.
The first tenet of the Artemis Accords states that “international cooperation on Artemis is intended not only to bolster space exploration but to enhance peaceful relationships between nations. Therefore, at the core of the Artemis Accords is the requirement that all activities will be conducted for peaceful purposes, per the tenets of the Outer Space Treaty.”
NASA associate administrator Mike Gold partnering with other nations to send astronauts to the lunar surface is not only for the sake of space exploration, but to advance the values for which NASA stands for over the decades.
“We don’t want to only carry astronauts to the Moon, we want to carry our values forward,” said Mike Gold. “We want to use the excitement around Artemis to incentivize partners to adopt these principles that we believe will lead to a more peaceful, transparent, safe, and secure future in space—not only for NASA and the international partners we’re working with but the entire world.”
NASA deputy administrator Jim Morhard revealed that the Artemis Accords which aims to partner with other countries to explore the lunar surface is based on the Outer Space Treaty and the United Nations Registration Convention. He said NASA had always adhered to the regulations and demands of the treaties and it is expected that international partners will adopt the same values for better hopes.
NASA disclosed that it is working with the US State Department to refine the final agreement which international partners will work on for the space project. One of the major principles involves how space resources are used in a sustainable manner for further explorations. To this extent, this component of the agreement states that “the ability to extract and utilize resources on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids will be critical to support safe and sustainable space exploration and development.”
Source: arstechnica.com