BEIJING (Reuters) – Once China builds a lunar research station, its astronauts will stay on the moon for long periods while doing scientific studies, state media reported Sunday, citing the architect of China’s lunar program.
China has mapped out a series of unmanned missions this decade, including setting up a robotic base to explore the moon’s south pole before manned landings.
“If the project for lunar research stations is successfully implemented, China will not be far from manned landings,” said Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar reconnaissance program.
Last week, China and Russia signed an initial treaty to set up an international lunar research station, but did not release a timeline.
“Compared to American astronauts who could only stay ten hours after landing on the moon, Chinese astronauts will stay on the moon for a longer period of time,” Wu said.
“It will be a long-term stay on the moon, not a short-term stop.”
Over the past few years, China has successfully launched a series of lunar missions, including an unprocessed lunar rocket recovery last year, the first by any country since 1976.
But China still lags behind the United States in experience, expertise and technology.
NASA plans to bring astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2024. The last NASA landing was in 1972.
Chinese rockets currently do not have enough power to send astronauts to the moon, Wu said, but China intends to make breakthroughs in the design of rockets in 2021-2025.
In China’s next lunar mission, lunar samples from the South Pole will be detected, he said.
Subsequent missions will include a detailed survey of resources in the South Pole and the testing of key technologies in preparation for the construction of the research station, Wu said.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)