The astronauts have not yet landed on the Moon as part of the new Artemis project, as the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, is already worried about water on our natural moon. In particular, he worries that China may be the first to reach the water on the Moon, which is valuable for the international community.
“I think the United States will get there first. What worries me more is that both they and we are going to land at the South Pole, where we think there is water,” Nelson told Spanish newspaper El País when he was asked about the growing race between the U.S. and China for a natural moon.
“Water is important because it is composed of oxygen and hydrogen, and that’s oxygen to breathe and hydrogen for rocket fuel. We want to preserve those potential reserves for the international community, and prevent China from coming in and saying that the water is theirs, as they have done with the Spratly Islands,” he added.
There are a lot of things here that need to be sorted out, including the fact that the US has historically also considered various island countries to be its own. But water on the Moon is somewhat different. But if the US gets to this water first, it probably won’t share it with China.
Artemis Agreements
Nelson spoke about water on the Moon in the context of the “Artemis Agreements” of 1967, an international treaty of cooperation in civilian research and the use of the Moon, Mars, comets and asteroids for peaceful purposes. Now more than twenty countries have signed this non-binding agreement. However, China is not among them, despite the fact that it plans to land astronauts on the Moon this decade.
“These are common sense principles, such as peaceful uses of space, coming together to help each other in times of danger. Agreement also rules out that someone could reach the moon and claim territory and so prevent others from accessing it,” Nelson told El País.
The relationship between the US and China is really complicated. And the competition between these countries in space has undoubtedly already begun. But the reality is that if there really is some kind of useful water source on the Moon, then it will definitely be enough for everyone, and even remain. After all, according to recent studies, billions of tons of water have been found on the Moon.
Earlier we reported on how “solar water” was found on the Moon.
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