A new space race is underway and it does not seem that it will be governed by the same rules as the previous one, the one between the Soviet Union and the United States. If in the 20th century international prestige and scientific development were the hares behind which the superpowers ran, this time the prize is more tangible: space mining. The United States is aware of this and that is why it hastened to present its proposal to lay down the rules of the game: the artemis treatises (or Artemis).
What are the Artemis Agreements and who has signed.
The Artemis Accords are somewhat related to the Artemis program, but it is important not to confuse them. The second is the program developed by NASA to bring humans to the Moon for the first time since the 1970s; while the Artemis Agreements are an international treaty proposed by the United States at the end of 2020 and have been signed by 20 countries, the last of them Colombia, just over a week ago.
These agreements were drafted and proposed by the United States. Among the signatories to date are four countries of the European Union: Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Romania. Other European countries such as Ukraine and the United Kingdom have also signed in the little more than a year and a half that it has been in force.
According to the US special agency, NASA, the text shares the principles of Treaty on the Exploration and Use of Outer Space of 1967. However, these agreements have caused considerable controversy and their degree of adoption is very limited. Everything seems to indicate that the new space race is going to be less cordial than the one that the Soviet and American blocs carried out in their day.
Who have not signed and why.
19 signatory countries are not many countries, barely 10% of the 193 members of the United Nations, however the most notable absence is China, whose space agency, CNSA, hopes to take the lead over NASA in this space race.
The Asian giant has been against these agreements, and cement your opposition alluding to respecting the Agreement that should govern the activities of the States on the Moon and other celestial bodies from 1979. The American Proposal provides for the creation of “safe zones”, areas whose access would be limited in order to protect the activities carried out in that area from interference or, in the words of the treaty, some “harmful obstacle”.
The treaty considers that these zones would have a temporary nature limited to the duration of the activity that takes place in them. China considers that it is a form of occupation that does not fit within the framework of international law. Sino-American cooperation has an additional obstacle, and that is that the American Federal Government has severe limits on the interactions allowed between NASA and the CNSA.
China’s position.
The Asian power is precisely a promoter of another international agreement with a view to lunar exploration, the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). The Chinese lunar program is moving fast and includes the creation of this lunar station. Its creation stems from a bilateral agreement with Russia for now. “For now”, since it is an agreement open to other parties. From Beijing they claim to be in negotiations with several agencies, including the European Space Agency. Current geopolitics, however, is not encouraging.
The other notable absence from the Artemis Accords is that of India. India is currently one of the most capable space powers, but has not yet joined any of the proposed treaties, neither Artemis nor ILRS.
There is much in dispute.
The situation is complicated, but the fight now is to know who or who establishes the rules of the game. At least that’s what Malcolm Davis thinks in statements collected by Bloomberg. The US authorities have taken the first step, but the new international agreement seems far away. Precisely one of the reasons is how much is at stake.
Mining on the Moon.
Space mining has attracted the attention of many agents, public and private, seeking to make space exploration profitable. Asteroids are often the subject of this attention, but the Moon may contain a very valuable resource: Helium-3.
Helium-3 is an isotope of Helium (whose nucleus has two protons and one neutron), extremely rare among the helium that occurs naturally on Earth. This isotope has been proposed as an alternative fuel source to the Uranium-235 that powers nuclear reactors. Helium is not radioactive, so it would be a more practical source of energy if it proves effective and efficient at work.
Moon water is also a precious resource, if only as an intermediate good needed to carry out operations without having to transport the liquid from Earth. This and other materials could be used on the same satellite or to prepare trips to more remote places.
More and more actors in the “mix”.
When the rules of the game are vague, the games end in a row, and this game of Space Monopoly seems difficult. Even more so because another factor that conditions cooperation is the number of participants. The space race of the 20th century had two, the future predicts a real tangle of agents, with more countries involved and the arrival of private companies.
In addition to the agencies already mentioned, countries such as Japan and South Korea also have their own satellite exploration projects. SpaceX is one of the agents already involved in lunar exploration, but NASA does not close the way to other projects. Be that as it may, the new space race is going to be much more complex and more competitive. One can only hope that this space race is more civilized than a family board game night.
Imagen | For All Mankind
