When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Artist’s illustration of a moon base under construction. | Credit: NASAFive years after the Artemis Accords were established, key rules for operating on the moon remain unresolved, including how to respond to emergencies and how to define “safety zones” around lunar activities.As NASA gears up to launch its Artemis 2 mission — which will return astronauts to the vicinity of the moon for the first time in over half a century, presaging the later return of humans to the lunar surface — efforts are continuing on the ground to determine how to address the inherent dangers of lunar exploration.AdvertisementAdvertisementAt a press conference at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, Australia, last September, Artemis Accords members United Arab Emirates, Australia and the United States presented the latest outcomes from signatories’ workshops on key issues, notably including the issue of emergencies and safety zones.”In a lunar scenario, if there is an emergency, regardless of whether it is a [Artemis Accords] signatory or not, how do you behave in that scenario?” said Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, the United Arab Emirates minister of sports and chancellor of the higher colleges of technology. The outcomes of the discussions were not shared, though details are expected to follow as signatories continue their work.Artemis Accords signatories sign up to key principles, one of which is interoperability. This means that partners with NASA’s Artemis program should aim to develop and provide support for systems that can work in conjunction with existing infrastructure, with the goal of increasing the safety of space operations.Cooperation between Artemis Accords signatories and non-participants during an emergency may be much more complicated politically, in terms of communications, and technology compatibility.AdvertisementAdvertisementAsked if there had been approaches to other lunar actors such as China and Russia regarding joining the Artemis Accords, Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator, said that there had been none, citing constraints that NASA operates under regarding engaging with these parties.Another area of focus and complexity is safety zones. Under the Artemis Accords, safety zones are the de facto mechanism for avoiding interference. These propose to establish buffer areas around lunar operations, such as landers, habitats or resource-extraction sites, to prevent harmful interference. But defining a safety zone and its area is challenging.”What a safety zone is is not pretty well defined,” Al Falasi said. “[They] could be small, could be big. We need to be very specific on that.”More than 60 nations have signed the Artemis Accords to date. | Credit: NASAWith both the U.S. and China looking to send crewed and robotic missions to the lunar south pole, which features notable key locations in terms of solar illumination and access to areas potentially harboring water ice, such questions will need to be answered to avoid issues and disagreements or worse.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe safety zone concept is stated to be part of avoiding “harmful interference,” Al Falasi noted, and the difficulty in defining this. “There’s some interference every day, but what is harmful interference?” Safety zones and defining harmful …
