Artemis Accords: Challenges & Opportunities Webinar

Takeaway: It’s still a debate

“More Star Trek and less Star Wars” — Mike Gold, Acting Associate Administrator, Office of International and Interagency Relations, NASA

What started as a statement of good faith reasoning behind the strategy of the Artemis Accords and the policies within became a debate over tactics and potential dangers of rushing to signing without thinking through unintended consequences.

The first presenters, from NASA and the US State Department, definitely had the US interest and Point of View in mind. Naturally, we want to believe humanity’s return to the moon will bring advancement in science and prosperity to all nations involved, even all humankind. This excitement might be blinding stakeholder nations from asking the tough questions.

We got an overview of the program, to set the stage for the principles of the accord and why they were designed as such. We are by now all familiar with the goal to return to the moon by 2024.

The politics are possibly the most challenging part of these missions, not the technology. Bipartisan support, within the US, has been really transformational in NASA’s ability to advance towards Artemis.

The twin sister of Apollo, Artemis is symbolic of the diversity that this new era of space ushers in. The diversity is important not only symbolically, but also as an enrichment of the skills, points of view, and innovation…