The Briefing

While the Artemis Accords sounds like a treaty to come out of a sci-fi film, Japan joins the latest group of nations to agree to collaborate on the Artemis Program. The goal of the Artemis Program is for NASA to corroborate with other nations for lunar surface exploration and establishment of a foothold to Mars. NASA’s immediate goal is to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024, heralding a new era for space exploration and utilization. And signing the Joint Exploration Declaration of Intent, code-named JEDI, along with the Artemis accords establishes a common set of principals to govern the civil exploration and use of outer space grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967[1] (“Treaty”) of both governments and private companies. Among the agreements of the Artemis Accords are to promote international cooperation for peaceful purposes, transparency, interoperability through implementation of international standards, provide emergency assistance when needed, register space objects, release scientific data to the world at large, protect historic sites around the moon (such as the Apollo 11 landing site), space resource extraction and utilization to be conducted under the tenets of the Treaty, the creation of “safety zones” and information of locations off-limits to the general public, and the mitigation of orbital debris and Spacecraft disposal. The Artemis Accords are just one small step to continued space exploration and our return to the moon and the giant leap beyond. [1] The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 is a list of […]

Fifty years ago, the world held its breath as it could hear and see mankind walk upon the surface of another world. Fast-forward to today and a lot has changed: technology, politics, and the space race, but still no casino on the Moon as in Andy Weir’s book Artemis. Even though we have access to over 100,000 times the processing power in our small, half-pound smartphone, as compared to the 70-pound behemoth known as the Apollo Guidance Computer, Commercialized Space, specifically Space Tourism, is still in its infancy. However, that slowly started to change when the United States enacted the Commercial Space Launch Act and retired its Space Shuttle Program. Companies such as Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Orion Span, and Boeing (to name just a few) have started the slow ascent into commercializing spaceflight with some even providing launch vehicles to both the government and commercial companies at a reduced cost. In order to keep U.S. companies in competition with the rest of the world, the United States passed the previously mentioned Commercial Space Launch Act (“Launch Act”). The Launch Act requires companies to either obtain third-party liability insurance[1] or show it has the financial responsibility in order to cover third-party claims up to the maximum probability loss (“MPL”) when the company is issued a launch or reentry license by the United State Government. Each MPL is determined on a case-by-case basis; however, the cap is set at $500 million in 1988 dollars. Adjusting to current market inflation, that […]