NASA released the draft agreements for other space countries, and after receiving its comments, the agency created the final document, which includes standards for things like moon mining and dealing with conflicts on the lunar surface. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the main goal is to bring everyone to the same level of lunar exploration and avoid future misunderstandings or conflicts. “When we think about the Artemis accords, we try to set standards of behavior that any nation can accept,” Bridenstine said at a press briefing before the announcement. 1. States Parties to this Convention have international responsibility for national activities on the Moon, whether or not carried out by governmental or non-governmental authorities, and for ensuring that national activities are carried out in accordance with the provisions of this Convention. States Parties shall ensure that non-governmental bodies under their jurisdiction carry out activities on the Moon only under the supervision and constant supervision of the competent State Party. Today, NASA announced that eight countries – including the United States – have signed an international agreement known as the Artemis Accord, which forms a broad and diverse coalition of countries engaged in standardized lunar exploration. 1. States Parties may, subject to the provisions of this Convention, carry out their exploration and use of the Moon anywhere on or below its surface. 2. States Parties shall be guided by the principle of cooperation and mutual assistance in all their activities relating to the exploration and exploitation of the Moon. International cooperation under this Convention should be as broad as possible and may take place on a multilateral basis, on a bilateral basis or through international intergovernmental organisations. The seven countries that have signed with the United States are: Australia, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
NASA says it has also spoken to other countries interested in signing, but those seven countries have been able to go through the interagency process the fastest. That means more countries could sign the agreements very soon — before the end of the year, according to NASA. “This initial announcement is really a beginning, not an end, for nations that adhere to the agreements,” Mike Gold, NASA`s acting deputy administrator for the Bureau of International and Interagency Relations, said at the briefing. The content of the agreements is relatively undisputed. Everywhere, reference is made to the existing framework of the Outer Space Treaty, so that it is closely linked to existing norms of space law. As such, the agreements appear to have been deliberately drafted to reassure countries that this is not an instruction on how to behave from a hegemonic power. 8. All activities relating to the natural resources of the Moon shall be carried out in a manner consistent with the objectives referred to in paragraph 7 of this Article and in Article 6(2). In the desire to prevent the moon from becoming an international conflict zone, (a) to land their space objects on the moon and launch them from the moon; 2. Any threat or use of force or any other hostile act or threat of hostile action on the moon shall be prohibited. Similarly, it is forbidden to use the moon to commit such an act or to engage in such a threat in relation to the Earth, the lunar spacecraft, the personnel of the spacecraft or artificial space objects. In the end, the Artemis agreements are still just a set of policies, with no defined enforcement mechanisms.
There are no real consequences if a country signs the agreement and violates any of the provisions. However, Bridenstine hopes that the participation of other nations will be enough to ensure that countries behave in accordance with the agreements. “I think there`s a lot of pressure that can be put on countries that choose to be part of the Artemis program but don`t play by the rules,” he said. 1. States Parties shall inform the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as well as the public and the international scientific community, to the greatest extent possible and to the greatest extent possible, of their activities related to the exploration and exploitation of the Moon. .