NASA has made a landmark announcement about its plan to return to the moon and onto Mars, revealing that it has begun negotiating the “Artemis Accords”.
The accords are a set of agreements that would require any country that plans to work with the US on returning to the lunar surface to agree to a host of principles. The accords are named in keeping with the Artemis programme, which is the plan to send the first woman and next man to the moon by 2024.
They would include a commitment to be transparent in their work, to only explore space for “peaceful purposes”, and to guarantee they would work together to save any astronauts that came into danger during a mission.
Nasa was explicit that the agreements would be made in keeping with the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which currently sets the legal framework for space exploration. That requires a set of commitments from countries which are intended to ensure that space missions are as safe and transparent as possible.
But the new Artemis Accords go further than those commitments, requiring more detailed principles from the countries prepared to work with the US to head to the moon and beyond.
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