Jared Isaacman’s ready to make a deal with Artemis partners 

If the various nations that have signed the Artemis Accords are wondering what they need to do to more fully participate in NASA’s Artemis return to the moon program, Italy and Japan are showing the way. According to Ars Technica, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman recently issued a challenge.

“I will tell you, though, and this is right from the top from the president of the United States: We’re only doing good deals, and we haven’t always done good deals.”

Why the new, hard-headed, business-like approach? Isaacman said, after working to “make everyone happy,” in the Artemis Accords, he now realizes that effort has been, “at times, a drag on the mission instead of accelerating it.”

“You can’t do that, and we’ve changed that now, and as a result, good deals are happening.”

One should not be surprised that Isaacman, who built nearly $2 billion in net worth out of nothing, would take that attitude. Both Italy and Japan, signatories of the Artemis Accords, have gotten the message and have made what the NASA administrator considers good deals with the American space agency.

Japan has concluded a 2024 deal with NASA to fly two of its astronauts to the moon, including one possibly on Artemis IV, the first moon landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972. In return, Japan will provide a lunar rover. Unlike the lunar rover of the Apollo missions, the Japanese rover will be an enclosed vehicle that can sustain astronauts for up to 30-day journeys across the........

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