Space Policy Online reports that NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have concluded an agreement that, among other things, would include a Canadian astronaut on the Artemis II mission, scheduled to carry four astronauts around the moon in 2023. Artemis II it would precede Artemis III’s mission to land on the moon the following year, although most believe that date is unrealistic.
Other parts of the agreement concerned the development and installation of a Canadian-built robotic arm at the Lunar Gateway, the planned lunar orbital transfer station. A second Canadian astronaut will go on a mission to the Lunar Gateway.
The as-yet-unidentified Canadian astronaut will be the first non-American to venture beyond low Earth orbit. The inclusion illustrates that Artemis is not your grandfather’s lunar exploration program. The international aspects of the 21st century moon have a long-standing 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 introduced Russia as a partner of the space station.
The Apollo race to the moon was conducted to demonstrate American technological superiority in the Soviet Union. The program was a brilliant success in this endeavor. The Soviets never recovered from the humiliation.
The Artemis program has a similar but more subtle political purpose. Returning astronauts to the moon and calling for international participation in the company, the United States is trying to establish itself as a world leader in space exploration. The United States also hopes to gain a great deal of international goodwill by inviting other countries to participate in Artemis, which will include its citizens walking on the moon alongside the Americans.
Artemis will prove to China, which also has lunar ambitions, that the country that landed men on the moon 50 years ago still has what it takes to do the same now. Right now, the United States is the world leader in space exploration. China, because of its relentless hostility to the United States and the rest of the Western world, is by no means a candidate for a space exploration association.
The third purpose of the international associations Artemis is to prevent the incoming 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 posed a major problem with Trump’s withdrawal from international agreements, such as the Paris climate agreements and the Iran Nuclear Agreement. It would not be good, given this rhetoric, if the future Biden broke the agreements, including the Artemis agreements, which seek to define what constitutes good behavior in space.
Jim Bridenstine
James (Jim) Frederick BridenstineNASA selects Artemis’ next moonwalkers as SpaceX flies with a First Starship to break the sound barrier, Chuck Yeager dies at 97 The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Congress faces a final course crisis; Biden selects MORE his Secretary of Defense, NASA’s outgoing administrator, has demonstrated his worth by negotiating the various Artemis agreements. His latest feat, in addition to the Canadian agreement, has been to persuade Brazil to join the growing list of countries that have become part of the Artemis agreements.
Ironically, Senate Commerce Committee Democrats criticized Bridenstine during his confirmation hearings, claiming that instead of being a politician (he was a congressman at the time), NASA needed an “aerospace professional” as a leader. Bridenstine won the confirmation anyway. Since then, he used his political skills to gain not only the bipartisan approval of the Artemis Congress, but also international support.
Bridenstine has vowed to step down as NASA administrator once Biden has taken over as president of the United States. The decision is a tragedy because the former naval delegate and aviator has been so well at the helm of the space agency, even winning over his former critics. Everyone who Team Biden chooses to replace Bridenstine, should be someone with the ability and passion to bring Artemis home to Kathy Lueders, the current head of NASA’s human spaceflight effort, which includes Artemis and the commercial crew program.
As for Bridenstine, he might be offered the post of Special Envoy for Space Exploration, so that he could continue his diplomatic work building the Artemis Alliance to return to the moon.
Many astronauts from other countries will follow this first Canadian into deep space. They will come from Europe, Asia and probably even the Middle East. America went to the moon alone, before the eyes of the world, 50 years ago. This time it will lead the world to the lunar surface and thus gain a lot of international influence and credibility.
Mark Whittington, who often writes about space and politics, has published a political study on space exploration entitled Why Is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond. Blogging at Curmudgeons Corner.” It is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, LA Times and Washington Post, among others.