NASA chiefs discuss Artemis missions with UK counterparts

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Us senior officials are holding talks with the UK space agency about launching missions to the moon, hinting that astronauts from friendly nations could get a spot on the next landing.

The talks raised hopes that the new missions could see a British astronaut walk on the moon and mark the UK as the second country ever to land humans on the moon’s surface, after the US in 1969.

The head of NASA is currently present London discussion of the Artemis missions, a program aimed at further exploring the Moon and touching its South Pole by 2025.

The first two astronauts to land in 2025 are likely to be American, Nasa said, including the likely first woman and first man to walk on the moon’s surface in more than 50 years.

NASA chiefs discuss Artemis missions with UK counterparts

British astronaut Tim Peake is the only British astronaut on the European Space Agency team. Nasa has said it wants to launch an astronaut to the moon as part of ESA, particularly from a country helping to build the Lunar Gateway space station, including Britain.

NASA executives are said to be in talks with the UK space agency about launching missions to the moon.  The missions could see the first British people step on the moon

NASA executives are said to be in talks with the UK space agency about launching missions to the moon. The missions could see the first British people step on the moon

What are the Artemis Accords?

The Artemis Agreement promises to return humans to the Moon by 2025, while also representing an attempt to prevent a space war.

The accords are the first legal principles aimed at establishing international law on space colonization to be drafted under the Trump administration.

The agreement was signed by 13 countries, among the first were Australia, Great Britain, Japan and Canada.

France and Saudi Arabia signed on recently, along with Brazil, South Korea, Luxembourg and Poland – but other countries worry that the accords represent the US trying to dictate the rules of space exploration.

China and Russia did not sign the agreement, opting instead to develop their own lunar missions.

India and Germany also refused to sign.

The alliance raises issues for future industries such as asteroid mining and control of the nascent space tourism industry – for now limited to billionaires like Richard Branson and Jeff Bazos.

One asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter, called 16 Psyche, is composed entirely of a core of nickel, iron, and solid gold, and the estimated value of the asteroid is said to be close to $10,000 quadrillion.

Whichever country controls the infrastructure around the Moon will find it easier to take advantage of the lucrative mining industry if it can be cost-effective.

The UN Outer Space Treaty, signed by all major space-faring nations in 1967, remains the backbone of international space law – it asserts that all nations have the right to explore beyond the Earth’s surface and that space is not the territory of any country.

Critics worry that the Artemis Agreement threatens this principle and advocate a more pluralistic space treaty.

But after that, there could be a place for countries to help build the Lunar Gateway space station to orbit the moon.

British companies are helping to build the station, raising hopes that Britain could be the second country to land on the moon.

The project also aims to put the first black person on the moon, but it is not clear what nationality he will be.

NASA Administrator Pamela Melroy said: ‘I am very confident that we will have an international partner because they are contributing to the construction of Gateway … but we have not yet decided when they will go to the surface.’

The Japanese and Canadian space agencies have also partnered with NASA to help build the station, so competition for a spot on the moon could be fierce.

The Gateway Station is expected to be built between the first and second manned landings, expected to begin in 2026.

Nasa is looking forward to “having an ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut join us on the surface of the moon,” he says Times.

There is currently only one British astronaut on the ESA team – Tim Peake – but several Brits have made it to the final stages of the next generation of ESA astronauts, which will be announced later this year.

NASA leaders added that there would be “further opportunities.” [for UK involvement] when the program goes live’.

The UK’s first instrument would fly to the moon this year with the Peregrine-1 lunar lander, which carries cargo into orbit and onto the surface.

Lunar Trailblazer, a spacecraft designed to detect and map water on the lunar surface to learn more about lunar water, will includes a thermal mapping instrument developed by the University of Oxford and funded by the UK Space Agency.

It will detect water molecules in the moon’s thin atmosphere as part of a lunar surface mapping project next year.

An unmanned Artemis mission will launch in September, followed by two manned missions to orbit the Moon.

They hope to land astronauts on the moon’s surface in 2025.

Only seven British-born individuals, including Helen Sharman in 1991 and Peake in 2015, have gone into space.

The agreements come at a time when demand for rare earth metals, which are used in technological devices and can be found in vast quantities in space, is booming.

A new base on the moon would allow countries to launch space exploration missions aimed at mining asteroids, which in theory could more easily transport such materials back to Earth.

The Gateway space station is a key element in securing the future space industry for the US, says geopolitics author Tim Marshall.

But China has also formed initial plans for a lunar base with Russia, raising the possibility that countries competing with the US for space exploration could beat its allies on the moon.

On January 3, 2019, China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the dark side of the moon, the first spacecraft in history to land in an unexplored area, so-called because it is never visible from Earth.

The Trump administration has drawn up a legal plan to mine the moon under the Artemis Agreement.  The UK was an early signatory and co-operated with the US in several of its space programmes

The Trump administration has drawn up a legal plan to mine the moon under the Artemis Agreement. The UK was an early signatory and co-operated with the US in several of its space programmes

The UK's first instrument would fly to the moon this year with the Peregrine-1 lunar lander, which carries cargo into orbit and onto the surface.

The UK’s first instrument would fly to the moon this year with the Peregrine-1 lunar lander, which carries cargo into orbit and onto the surface.

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