NASA Sets New Moon Rules, Says No Littering, Trespassing Or Keeping Secrets
NASA has come up with a set of rules for astronauts and lunar missions to follow on the Moon to preserve the existing historic landmarks on the lunar surface as well as other rovers, among others. The rules include no littering and trespassing among others.
Nasa¡¯s new moonshot rules have been signed by eight countries so far. The guidelines come ahead of the Artemis Moon-landing programme and are being touted as the?Artemis Records.?
The?Artemis Records have the US, Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom as its members. Releasing the new set of rules, Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he expects more countries to join the effort to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2024.??
It promises to be the largest coalition for a human spaceflight program in history, according to Bridenstine, and is expected to pave the way for eventual Mars expeditions.
What are the New Nasa Moon Rules?
The primary rule is that everyone must come in peace. Other rules are as follows:
- Secrecy is prohibited and all launched objects need to be identified and registered.
- All members agree to contribute in case of astronaut emergencies.
- Space systems must be universal so that everyone's equipment is compatible. Scientific data must be shared with each other.
- Historic sites must be preserved, and any resulting space junk must be properly disposed.
- Rovers and other spacecraft cannot have their missions jeopardized by others getting too close.
According to Bridenstine, violators of these rules could be asked to leave. He said?the coalition can say, "Look, you're in this program with the rest of us, but you're not playing by the same rules".?
Moon missions
Among the objects on lunar surface is also India¡¯s Moon lander Vikram, which crashed on the Moon on September 7 in the highly-anticipated Chadrayaan-2 mission launched by Isro.?Vikram lander has been traced on the Moon surface and was found lying in a titled position. The debris from its impact on the lunar surface was traced by a space enthusiast in Chennai and was later corroborated by Nasa.
Other than that, the U.S. is the only country to put humans on the moon: 12 men from 1969 through 1972.
Russia is still on the fence. The country¡¯s space agency chief, Dmitry Rogozin, said at an International Astronautical Congress virtual meeting Monday that the Artemis program is U.S.-centric and he would prefer a model of cooperation akin to the International Space Station.
China, meanwhile, is out altogether. NASA is prohibited under law, at least for now, from signing any bilateral agreements with China.?
