A top NASA official said India, a global power with autonomous space access, should join Artemis. The Artemis Accords, based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, are non-binding guidelines for 21st-century civil space research and utilization.

The US-led Lunar Accords aim to return people to the moon by 2025 to explore Mars and beyond. According to NASA assistant administrator for technology, policy, and strategy Bhavya Lal, India should prioritize signing the Artemis Accords.

She highlighted India’s global influence, autonomous space access, burgeoning rocket business, and lunar and Mars expeditions. Joining the Artemis team would position India as a key space participant and demonstrate its commitment to cooperative growth, responsible space use, and sustainable exploration. India should prioritize signing Artemis Accords.

India is a Global Leader Says NASA

NASA thinks India’s a global power. “It’s one of the few countries with independent space access, has a thriving launch industry, has been to the moon and Mars, it needs to be part of the Artemis team,” she added.

Born in Mathura and raised in New Delhi, Lal stressed the necessity for more US-India collaboration in the Artemis program, particularly in lunar operations. She hoped a human space travel working group would lead to collaboration.

Lal is excited about NISAR, Chandrayaan 3, and India’s human space exploration program. Lal stated that recent India-US space interactions have been excellent, with India proving itself a capable partner. She addressed India’s planned space station and partnership in human space travel, research missions, lunar exploration, and planetary security.

Lal also suggested that Indian private enterprises may work with NASA’s commercial lunar payload services and US firms. All nations should cooperate on planetary defense to avoid asteroids and comets. Lal cited NASA’s Dart project as a countermeasure.

She spoke about going to the US as an undergraduate student and confronting cultural obstacles, emphasizing her love of space exploration and nuclear engineering. High-ranking NASA official Bhavya Lal thinks India should join the Artemis project as a global power with independent space access.

Collaboration might help India become a global space power and promote sustainable and responsible exploration. Lal praised India’s planned missions and human space flight program and stressed the necessity for more US-India partnership in space exploration.