China has announced ambitious plans to land astronauts on the moon before the close of this decade, marking a significant step forward in the nation’s extraterrestrial exploration endeavors. The Chinese government is also planning to add a fourth module to its Tiangong space station, highlighting the country’s expanding ambitions in space.
During a news conference at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the country’s human spaceflight agency, unveiled China’s lunar mission strategy. The strategy comprises a brief habitation of the lunar surface along with a human-robotic joint exploration, The Associated Press reported on May 29.
Coincidentally, both NASA and the Chinese space agency have expressed interest in the moon’s south pole as a prospective landing site. This lunar region harbors water ice and other resources that could be essential for further lunar settlement and exploration activities.
On the subject of the Tiangong space station, Xiqiang disclosed plans for an additional module. As of now, the space station consists of three modules, all launched individually since May 2021 and assembled in space. The space station, completed in November 2022, is expected to house a three-member crew round the clock for a minimum of ten years.
The fourth module will be launched “at an appropriate time to advance support for scientific experiments and provide the crew with improved working and living conditions,” Xiqiang stated. The future module would give the T-shaped station a cross-like appearance, as per earlier reports from Chinese officials. The country’s long-term goal is to include two more modules, making it a six-module space station.
Despite possible cooperation barriers with the U.S. due to the Wolf amendment—a restrictive legislation forbidding NASA from using federal budget funds to cooperate directly with the Chinese government—China demonstrated a willingness to engage with international partners. Li Yingliang, the technology director of the Chinese human spaceflight agency, expressed regret over the ban on aerospace cooperation between the U.S. and China, but emphasized China’s readiness to collaborate with any country or aerospace organization on peaceful space pursuits.
NASA is preparing for its Artemis 3 mission, aiming to land astronauts near the lunar south pole by the end of 2025. Meanwhile, China’s Chang’e 7 robotic mission plans to land a rover in the same area in 2026. Intriguingly, several potential landing sites for these missions overlap. This could necessitate a degree of collaboration between the two nations, largely due to the optimal lighting conditions in the lunar south pole and proximity to permanently shadowed regions believed to contain water ice and other beneficial resources.
