Artemis Missions and Lunar Exploration Spur Global Space Race and Legal Questions

The Artemis II mission successfully tested the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, advancing plans for human lunar return. Artemis III will test a lander in Earth orbit, while Artemis IV aims for an actual Moon landing. At London's Science Museum, the Space gallery displays a lunar rock sample from Apollo missions and Apollo 10, the fastest crewed vehicle, whose 1969 speed record remains unbroken by Artemis II. Since the 2000s, robotic missions from the European Space Agency (SMART-1), Japan (SELENE), China (Chang'e 1, 3, 4, 5), India (Chandrayaan-1, 3), and the U.S. have targeted the Moon, with China achieving the third lunar landing in 2013. In 2024, Japan's Space Agency landed the autonomous Transformable Lunar Robot LEV-2, and on February 22, 2024, Intuitive Machines' private spacecraft Odysseus landed in the Moon's southern polar region. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, supported by the UN, prohibits national appropriation but allows exploration. In 2020, NASA issued the Artemis Accords, signed by over 60 countries by January 2026, to update space protocols, including resource use. Lunar mining for Helium-3 is considered, though commercial extraction remains distant. The Moon is now a destination for scientific, settlement, and commercial activities, raising ongoing questions about ownership.