NASA Lays Out Policy Blueprint for International Moon Exploration

摘要

Countries interested in joining the U.S. Artemis Moon program will be asked to contribute more than hardware: NASA wants potential partners to commit to upholding protocols for deep-space exploration and development, including the extraction and use of indigenous resources such as lunar water ice. Using the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty as a blueprint, NASA has developed a framework for conducting missions on and around the Moon, which it hopes to parlay into a series of bilateral agreements with other countries. Operators of private lunar excur sions also would be asked to sign the Artemis Accords, named for NASA's current deep-space exploration initiative, which includes a landing on the south pole of the Moon by a male and a female U.S. astronaut in 2024.