NASA Boosts Open Science, Data Sharing with Artemis Accords

NASA says the science produced through its Artemis program — every Moon rock sample, lunar dataset, and discovery — will be shared with the global scientific community, a commitment upheld by all 71 countries that have signed the Artemis Accords, the set of principles for safe and transparent civil space exploration.

To put those principles into practice, NASA hosted a two-part virtual workshop series that began July 28 and concluded Sept. 8, focused on one key tenet of the Accords: the timely release of scientific data to the public and the international scientific community. The workshops followed earlier discussions led by ISRO in May, when signatories first explored ways to advance open data practices and established common ground for deeper conversations. NASA split its follow-on discussion into two virtual sessions so technical experts worldwide could participate.

The first session addressed open science principles and implementation practices, promoting interoperability and collaboration among signatories and advancing reproducibility, accessibility, and transparency in scientific work, including within Artemis. The second focused on tools for open science, giving signatories a working model to reference as they build or refine their own data-sharing frameworks. NASA presented its Planetary Data System — one of its primary planetary science archives — along with openly available lunar data, data visualization and analysis tools, and the system's data information model standard, offering a real-world example of how the agency structures, curates, and shares scientific data. Across both sessions NASA opened the floor to technical experts throughout the Accords community, reflecting a deliberate effort to build alignment at the working level.

"As we return humans to the Moon, our Artemis efforts will help us unlock the full potential of scientific discovery through transparency, collaboration, and accessibility," said Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at NASA. "We are making data, tools, and results freely available, and inviting the Artemis Accords partners to innovate with us and share their data as well, accelerating our understanding of lunar processes and laying the groundwork for human space exploration for the Moon, Mars and beyond." Andrew Mitchell, deputy chief science data officer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, whose office leads the agency's open science efforts, framed the effort as leading by example: "These workshops gave our Artemis Accords partners practical tools and a shared foundation to build on as we move forward together." He added a caution about the limits of hardware alone: "Advances in technology help enable open science, but technology alone is insufficient."