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By Eman Nawab
Germany is the 29th country to join the Artemis Accords which aims to lead a peaceful and safe space for the exploration of lunar discoveries. The signing service was held at the office of the German Ambassador on 14th September in Washington DC. According to Nasa’s statement, it is thrilled that Germany has joined the club as they have been one of NASA’s closest partners in international space missions. Their signing is proof of their goodwill and duty to peaceful space missions. According to sources, some German companies were already supporting the Artemis program. However, with Germany officially signing it, the door to new possibilities has been opened.
The Artemis program is launched by NASA which is a US governmental agency for space-related research and programs. Through this program, NASA aims to explore the lunar surface and make new scientific discoveries for the benefit of humans. International partnerships will play a key role in this. The agency’s major goal is to land humans on the moon. With various countries and companies carrying out lunar missions, there was a need to establish basic principles and frameworks to make sure no one misuses outer space.
NASA with the collaboration of the US State Department laid the foundation of the Artemis Accords along with seven other countries in the year 2020. Major purposes of the Accord include peace, transparency, interoperability, emergency assistance, registration of space objects, and release of scientific data. Some major countries that are a part of the program include India, Australia, Israel, UAE, USA, Canada and France
It is important to note here that lunar missions were brought to a halt in 1972. The last person to visit the moon was fifty years ago in December of 1972, during NASA’s Apollo 17 mission.
Astronauts believe the reasons are more related to financial and political domains rather than scientific and technical domains.
NASA aims at landing people on the moon again around November of 2024 by sending four astronauts to the moon and back in a mission named Artemis 2. Artemis 3 will put humans on the lunar surface supposedly in the year 2025 or 2026.
A rival or competitive group of countries is being led by China for the same purpose which is lunar exploration. It aims to establish a lunar base in the 2030s. It consists of three countries apart from China which includes Russia, Venezuela, and South Africa.
The writer is a student of Peace and Conflict Studies at NDU Islamabad.
