The new space race stepped up a gear on Monday when China announced it planned to land boots on the Moon by 2030 – challenging US supremacy in manned lunar exploration.
Speaking at a news conference, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of China’s Manned Space Agency, confirmed the aim of the country’s Chang’e Project – named after the Chinese Moon goddess. He added the plan included a ‘short stay on the lunar surface and human-robotic joint exploration’.
The US is aiming to return people to the Moon by 2025, but its Artemis project has faced a number of delays and challenges.
It is only 20 years since China first put a taikonaut – a Chinese astronaut – in space, several decades after the US and Russia. However, the country’s space programme has evolved rapidly, and last year it was reported to have completed the Tiangong space station, with three taikonauts currently on board.
China was also the first country to land a probe on the Moon’s far side, achieving the feat in 2019.
Space is quickly becoming a new area of competition between China and the US. Both are planning permanent, crewed bases on the Moon, with the potential for mining resources – posing significant issues regarding rights and interests on the lunar surface.
Over the years a number of space treaties have been put forward to attempt to regulate activity in space, but have been insufficiently detailed or become quickly outdated. The most recent, the Artemis Accords, have only been signed by a small number of countries – with China and Russia specifically excluded.
Other countries and organisations including India, the United Arab Emirates and the European Union are planning lunar missions, while private companies also have their sights on the Moon. Last month Japanese firm ispace attempted to land on the lunar surface, but its M1 spacecraft crashed into the Atlas Crater after running out of fuel in the final seconds of its descent due to an altitude miscalculation.
On Tuesday, China will launch three more taikonauts heading for the Tiangong space station. Gui Haichao, a professor at Beijing’s top aerospace research institute, will join mission commander Jing Haipeng and spacecraft engineer Zhu Yangzhu as the payload expert.
‘We firmly believe that the spring of China’s space science has arrived, and we have the determination, confidence, and ability to resolutely complete the mission,’ said Commander Jing, a major general who has made three previous space flights.
China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station following a law passed by Congress prohibiting any official US contact with the country’s space programme – citing national security concerns.
Following the original space race between the US and Russia during the Cold War, international space cooperation has previously proven a means of keeping ties between nations that are otherwise opposed to one another.
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