Space Policy Online reports that NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have reached an agreement that, among other things, would include a Canadian astronaut on the Artemis II mission, scheduled to take four astronauts around the month in 2023. Artemis II will precede the Artemis III mission to land per month the following year, even though most believe this date is unrealistic.
Other parts of the agreement concerned the development and installation of a robotic arm built in Canada on Lunar Gateway, the planned monthly orbital transfer station. A second Canadian astronaut will go on a mission to Lunar Gateway.
The unidentified Canadian astronaut will be the first non-American to venture beyond Earth’s low orbit. The inclusion illustrates that Artemis is not your grandfather’s monthly exploration program. The international aspects of the 21st century have a long precedent. As early as 1984, when President Ronald Reagan announced the project that eventually became the International Space Station, Canada, Japan and Western European countries were included as partners. Later, President Bill Clinton brought Russia as a partner for the space station.
The Apollo race to the moon was conducted to prove America’s technological superiority over the Soviet Union. The program succeeded brilliantly in this endeavor. The Soviets never recovered from humiliation.
The Artemis program has a similar but more subtle political purpose. By returning astronauts to the moon and demanding international participation in this venture, the United States is trying to establish itself as a world leader in space exploration. America also expects to gain international goodwill by inviting other countries to participate in Artemis, which will include their citizens who go to the moon with the Americans.
Artemis will prove to China, which also has lunar ambitions, that the country that landed people on the moon 50 years ago still has everything it needs to do the same thing now. Now, as then, the United States is the world leader in space exploration. China, due to its relentless hostility to the United States and the rest of the Western world, is by no means a candidate for a space exploration partnership.
The third goal of Artemis’ international partnerships is to prevent the Biden administration from canceling the project. By aligning international partners for Artemis, the Trump administration hopes to make it impossible for Biden to cancel the project. The Biden team has made a big deal of Trump’s withdrawal from international agreements, such as the Paris Climate Agreements and the Iran Nuclear Agreement. It would not be a good look, given this rhetoric, if the future Biden would break the agreements, including the Artemis Agreements, which seek to define what constitutes good behavior in space.
Jim Bridenstine
James (Jim) Frederick BridenstineNASA selects next Artemis moonwalkers as SpaceX flies a starship First to break the sound barrier, Chuck Yeager dies at 97 The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Congress faces year-end crisis ; Biden elects his defense secretary MORE, NASA’s outgoing administrator, proved its worth by negotiating various Artemis agreements. His latest feat, in addition to the Canadian agreement, was to persuade Brazil to join the growing list of countries that have become part of the Artemis Agreements.
Ironically, Senate Commerce Committee Democrats hit Bridenstine during his confirmation hearings, arguing that rather than a politician (he was a congressman at the time), NASA needed an “aerospace professional” like leader. Bridenstine won the confirmation anyway. Since then, he has used his political skills not only to gain the bipartisan approval of Congress for Artemis, but also for international support.
Bridenstine has pledged to step down as NASA administrator once Biden takes the oath of office as president of the United States. The decision is a tragedy, because the former congressman and aviator Naval did so well at the helm of the space agency, even winning over his former critics. Whoever the Biden team chooses to replace Bridenstine, he or she should be someone with the skills and passion to bring home Artemis Kathy Lueders, the current head of NASA’s human spaceflight effort, which includes Artemis and the commercial crew program , comes to mind.
As for Bridenstine, perhaps he could be offered the post of Special Envoy for space exploration, so that he could continue his diplomatic work building the Artemis Alliance to return for the month.
Many astronauts from other countries will follow the first Canadian in deep space. They will come from Europe, Asia and probably even the Middle East. America left the moon alone, before the eyes of the world, 50 years ago. This time, it will lead the world back to the lunar surface and thus gain a lot of international influence and credibility.
Mark Whittington, who frequently writes about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why Is It So Hard to Return to the Moon? as well as “Moon, Mars and beyond. He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. It is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, LA Times and the Washington Post, among other places.