In addition, this project will promote commercial planetary resource extraction and lunar exploration. India has demonstrated its potential as a major player in the developing lunar economy with the Chandrayaan-3 landing, but it also made clear by signing the Artemis Accords that it wants to be a member of the global lunar space ecosystem, which is expected to become the next frontier in geopolitics.
Source: Quora
The US-India space alliance is not brand-new. The mid-2000s saw its maturity. For example, the collaboration gained a solid foundation when the US-India Civil Space Joint Working Group was established in June 2005, coinciding with the announcement of the historic nuclear deal. In 2008, this working group gave ISRO a way to work with NASA on Chandrayaan-1, the spacecraft that launched the moon mineralogy mapper (M3) and mini-synthetic aperture radar (SAR) into lunar orbit.
Chandrayaan-1 was able to find evidence of water on the moon thanks to this apparatus. That mission established the foundation for future cooperation and solidified the India-US lunar alliance. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 served as the foundation for the 2020 introduction of the non-binding Artemis Accords, a multilateral agreement for peaceful uses of the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies as well as civil space research.
Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom were the first eight states to sign the agreement. India made the decision to join the Lunar Alliance as the 27th member after giving it considerable thought. Indeed, India’s determination to engage in sustainable and transparent space activity was demonstrated on June 21 when the country signed the Artemis Accords.
Additionally, it proved India’s dedication to a multipolar international order in line with the Moon Treaty and the Outer Space Treaty. Given that India has battled to join various multilateral (technology denial) clubs, such as the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and the Wassenaar Agreement, and that it is still prevented from joining the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) by Chinese manipulation, its admission into the group is wise.
Source: Money Control
India hopes to be inside the tent and at the high table of diplomacy when it comes to space matters with the Artemis Accords. Even though Chandrayaan-3’s achievement has boosted India’s space goals, structural limitations still stand in the way of India’s space objectives and could have an impact on India-US space collaboration following the Artemis Accords.
There are still issues with creating a friendly regulatory framework that will allow public-private partnerships to develop in the space industry. The intricate International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) on the US homefront will also need to be negotiated by India. ITAR is a collection of export control laws that safeguard US security interests across various domains, including space. The United States Munitions List (USML) considers 21 categories, products, and data to be defence items” and hence classifies them as sensitive.
The export of communication, navigation, remote sensing, and multi-mission satellites, as well as ground stations for telemetry, spacecraft, launchers, and propellants, will be scrutinised inside the space domain. Technology transfers will also require approval from the US Congress. By addressing these measures, India’s space power status will increase and US-India collaborations in the field will benefit.
The Artemis Accords, perhaps most importantly, are a complement to the Indo-Pacific agreement, wherein the United States and India, along with other like-minded signatories, aim to improve safety and predictability of the space environment by promoting peaceful intentions, enhancing transparency, registering space objects, and exchanging scientific data.
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