Artemis Space Program Lesson Plan

NASA – Artemis II Mission Overview

NASA – the Artemis Accords

Council on Foreign Relations – The Artemis Accords and the Next Generation of Outer Space Governance

PBS NewsHour / The Conversation: NASA’s Artemis II crewed mission to the Moon shows how US space strategy has changed since Apollo – and contrasts with China’s closed program

Center for Strategic and International Studies – Artemis and the Economics of a Permanent Moonbase

Bloomberg (Paywall) – Why Everyone is Heading Back to the Moon

Key Misconceptions to Address

• “The US owns the Moon because it got there first.” The Outer Space Treaty (1967) explicitly prohibits national appropriation — being first creates no legal claim. This is worth dwelling on, as it surprises many students.
• “Space exploration is purely scientific.” Help students see that mission selection, crew composition, naming choices (“Artemis”), and treaty frameworks are all political acts, not just logistical ones.
• “China and the US are in conflict.” The rivalry is real but not militarised (yet). The distinction between competition and conflict is analytically important for Level 3 students especially.

Sensitivity Risks

• Anti-Chinese or anti-American sentiment from students who frame this as a “good guys vs bad guys” binary. Redirect to: “Both programs describe themselves as peaceful and scientific — what does that tell us about how nations use language?”
• Students from China, the US, Canada, or any Artemis Accords nation may feel personally invested. Use the diversity of the crew and the involvement of 60+ nations to model that this story involves people from everywhere.
• The crew’s demographic composition (first person of colour, first woman in deep space) is worth discussing but can veer into US domestic culture war territory. Keep the frame on what signals nations choose to send through representation rather than domestic politics.

Differentiation Tips

• Level 1 students may benefit from a map showing countries that have signed the Artemis Accords vs. the ILRS — visual geography grounds the concept.
• Level 3 students can be pushed to engage with the actual text of the Outer Space Treaty Article II and the Artemis Accords Section 10 (resource utilisation) — both are publicly available and short enough to excerpt.
• Strong Level 3 students: assign the PBS/Conversation article contrasting Artemis with China’s program as a pre-reading or extension.

C3 Inquiry Arc Constructing compelling questions about how international law applies in new domains; evaluating sources and perspectives on contested sovereignty claims.

Common Core Literacy — History/Social Studies Determining central ideas; evaluating authors’ points of view and purpose; citing textual evidence in argument writing.

IB MYP Global Context: Globalisation and Sustainability. Key Concepts: Systems, Perspective. ATL Skills: Critical and creative thinking, Research.

IB DP Global Politics Power, sovereignty, and international relations; global governance and the UN system.

AP Government / Comparative Politics Foreign policy, international institutions, comparative state power.

GCSE / A-Level Global governance and international institutions; political ideologies and nationalism; contemporary geopolitical issues.

Canadian Provincial — Social Studies Global citizenship; identity, culture and community; power and authority in democratic and non-democratic contexts.

Australian Curriculum — HASS Civics and Citizenship: how international agreements shape governance. Geography: global commons and resource management.

Transferable Skills Sourcing and perspective-taking · Claim-evidence-reasoning · Structured academic controversy · Civic and media literacy