China To Build A Moon Station In The Next 10 Years

According to Xinhua, a news agency in China, the country plans to build a base for scientific research base on the Moon in the next decade.

The Chinese organization in charge of space exploration, China National Space Administration said that it wanted to set up the station in the south pole of the Earth’s satellite. No more information is revealed on the plan, but this marks a big step for Chinese ambition to explore the Moon further.

In 2019, Chang’e-4, an unmanned probe made a successful landing on the Moon. Another achievement is to send astronauts to two temporary space stations, the Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2. Next year, the agency plans to launch an even bigger station.

Some parts of that station will be sent to the orbit by hitchhiking the Long March-5B rocket in 2020. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), this voyage will have nothing to do with the International Space Station. The ISS is pushing the last years of its possible lifetime in space, and it is not like the United States and China will work together on any missions.

Another launch is with the Chang’e-5, another unmanned lunar mission which was first scheduled to make its journey in 2017. The probe will travel to the moon and bring samples back this year, according to Xinhua.

China is focusing its finance on space exploration than any other country. The only possible rival is the United States. For the time being, the US is having a lot of troubles when attempting to send human to space again on its own probe. The measure it is using now is to use Russian spacecraft. The plan to invest in probes built by privately-owned enterprises, like that of SpaceX, is also showing snags. Despite the hardship, the US still retains its plan to send astronauts to the Moon as well as staying there for a longer time.