China and Russia announced earlier this week that they had worked together to build a lunar research station.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement on Tuesday that it had signed an agreement with China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) to create a “complex experimental research facility created on the surface and / or in the moon’s orbit. build.”
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Roscosmos said the International Scientific Lunar Station (ILRS) will conduct multidisciplinary and multi-purpose research work, including exploration and use of the moon, lunar observations, fundamental research experiments and technological verification with the possibility of long-term unmanned operation with the prospect. of a human presence on the moon. ‘
In its own release, CNSA explained that the space agencies will adhere to ‘the principle of’ co-consultation, joint construction and shared benefits’ and that the ILRS will be open to all interested countries and international partners.
“China and Russia are committed to cooperation in space technology, science and applications,” CNSA said.
CNSA Administrator Zhang Kejian and Roscosmos State Corporation Director General Dmitry Rogozin signed a memorandum of understanding on behalf of their respective governments during a video conference.
The two countries did not set a timeline for the proposal.
The memorandum also referred to China’s upcoming Chang’e-7 mission and said that the cooperation would be within the ‘framework’ of the mission, as well as the Russian Luna-Resurs-1 Russian Orbital Spacecraft mission.
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The Chang’e-7 mission is a probe that is expected to be launched to the south pole of the moon in 2024.
In December, Chang’e-5 returned samples of the moon that have been exhibited since then, making China the third country after the US and the former Soviet Union to perform such a task.
The Luna-Resurs-1 and Chang’e-7 spacecraft will conduct tests and the agencies are ready to analyze the potential for reciprocal space experiments.
Rogozin also wrote that he took Kejian to the launch of Russia’s first modern lunar lander Luna 25 in October, according to The Guardian.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Russia’s first space flight ever in April 1961.
By comparison, China launched its first mission in 2003, although the country has since made great strides in space exploration.
China has four missions planned this year to work on its first permanent orbit, and the country has already launched two smaller experimental space stations and plans to land a rover on Mars in the coming months after launching its Tianwen-1 probe started in an orbit. the red planet.
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Russia participates in International Space Station (ISS) with the United States – The New York Times notes that US law prohibits NASA from collaborating with Beijing – and Soyuz rockets were once the only way to reach the ISS.
The US plans to visit the moon again in a program called Artemis – to send the first woman and the next man there by 2024.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.