The United States is drafting a legal blueprint for mining on the moon under a new U.S.-sponsored international agreement called the Artemis Accords. The draft pact has not been formally shared with U.S. allies yet. In the coming weeks, U.S. officials plan to formally negotiate the accords with space partners such as Canada, Japan, and European countries, as well as the United Arab Emirates, opening talks with countries the Americans sees as having “like-minded” interests in lunar mining. The United States enacted a law in 2015 granting companies the property rights to resources they mine in outer space, but no such laws exist in the international community.
The agreement is the latest effort to cultivate allies around NASA’s plan to put humans and space stations on the moon within the next decade, and comes as the civilian space agency plays a growing role in implementing American foreign policy. The Artemis Accords plan is to forgo the treaty process at the United Nations and instead reach agreement with “like-minded nations,” partly because a treaty process would take too long and working with non-spacefaring states would be unproductive, a senior administration official told Reuters.
The pact aims to provide a framework under international law for companies to own the resources they mine, the sources said.
The Artemis Accords also proposes “safety zones” that would surround future moon bases to prevent interference from rival countries or companies operating in close proximity. The United States is a member of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. It states that celestial bodies and the moon are “not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
Russia, a major partner with NASA on the International Space Station, won’t be an early partner in these accords, sources said, as the Pentagon increasingly views Moscow as hostile for making “threatening” satellite manoeuvres towards U.S. spy satellites in Earth orbit.
Joanne Gabrynowicz, editor-in-chief emerita of the Journal of Space Law, said an international agreement must come before staking out “some kind of exclusive area for science or for whatever reason.”
“It is not anything any nation can do unilaterally and still have it be legal,” she said.
The agreement is the latest effort to cultivate allies around NASA’s plan to put humans and space stations on the moon within the next decade, and comes as the civilian space agency plays a growing role in implementing American foreign policy. The Artemis Accords plan is to forgo the treaty process at the United Nations and instead reach agreement with “like-minded nations,” partly because a treaty process would take too long and working with non-spacefaring states would be unproductive, a senior administration official told Reuters.
The pact aims to provide a framework under international law for companies to own the resources they mine, the sources said.
The Artemis Accords also proposes “safety zones” that would surround future moon bases to prevent interference from rival countries or companies operating in close proximity. The United States is a member of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. It states that celestial bodies and the moon are “not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
“This isn’t some territorial claim,” said one source, who requested anonymity to discuss the agreement. The safety zones - whose size would vary depending on the operation - would allow for coordination between space actors without technically claiming territory as sovereign, he said. 'The idea is if you are going to be coming near someone’s operations, and they’ve declared safety zones around it, then you need to reach out to them in advance, consult and figure out how you can do that safely for everyone.”
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said, “The important thing is, countries all around the world want to be a part of this. That’s the element of national power,” Bridenstine said, adding that participation in the Artemis programme is contingent on countries adhering to “norms of behaviour that we expect to see” in space.
Russia, a major partner with NASA on the International Space Station, won’t be an early partner in these accords, sources said, as the Pentagon increasingly views Moscow as hostile for making “threatening” satellite manoeuvres towards U.S. spy satellites in Earth orbit.
Joanne Gabrynowicz, editor-in-chief emerita of the Journal of Space Law, said an international agreement must come before staking out “some kind of exclusive area for science or for whatever reason.”
“It is not anything any nation can do unilaterally and still have it be legal,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment