The Impact of the Artemis Accords on Resource Extraction

In 2020, NASA announced the formation of the Artemis Accords with eight foundation partners: Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States of America, focused on a return to the Moon and then to Mars. The Artemis Accords outline a set of fundamental principles, expressed to “reinforce and implement the Outer Space Treaty, the Registration Convention, the Agreement on the Rescue and Return of Astronauts,” and “other norms of behaviour that NASA and its partners have supported.” Many of those principles do indeed reflect the fundamental norms of space law, but several go well beyond current international consensus, particularly those related to the extraction and utilization of space resources and the concept of safety zones to ensure deconfliction of activities. This chapter will consider the likely effect of the Artemis Accords on the resource extraction activities of the members of the Artemis Accords and those countries who are not parties to that Agreement, notably at this time, China, Russia, and India. It will then address the likely impact of such activities on the evolution of international law regarding space-based resource extraction.