As mission deadlines for establishing a permanent habitat on the moon’s south pole approach, China, which hopes to become a major space power by 2030, has opened up a key lunar mission to international cooperation.
China invites countries and international organizations to join its uncrewed Chang’e-8 mission and work together on ‘mission-level’ initiatives, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Monday during the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Azerbaijan.
According to CNSA’s website, mission-level projects imply that China and its international partners will be able to launch and operate their spacecraft, perform spacecraft-to-spacecraft interactions, and collaboratively explore the moon’s surface.
“International partners are also welcome to piggyback on the Chang’e-8 mission and independently deploy their own modules once the Chinese spacecraft lands”, CNSA stated.
By December 31, interested parties must send a letter of intent to CNSA. The final proposals will be chosen in September 2024.
The Chang’e-8 mission will follow the Chang’e-7, which will seek lunar resources on the moon’s south pole in 2026. The two missions will establish the foundations for the Beijing-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in the 2030s.
China, which launched an uncrewed probe to the moon on the Chang’e-5 mission in 2020, aims to launch an uncrewed Chang’e-6 probe to the moon’s far side in the first half of 2024 to collect soil samples.
China plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030.
China’s schedule for establishing a south pole outpost overlaps with NASA’s more ambitious and advanced Artemis programme, which seeks to re-establish American humans on the lunar surface by December 2025, barring setbacks.
Two U.S. astronauts will land on the lunar south pole on the Artemis 3 mission in 2025, a location previously unexplored by any human. The last time a human set foot on the moon was in 1972 as part of the United States Apollo programme.
Artemis 4 and 5 crewed missions are scheduled for 2027 and 2029, respectively.
NASA is prohibited by law from collaborating with China, either directly or indirectly.
As of September, 29 countries, including India, which landed a probe near the moon’s south pole in August, had signed the Artemis Accords, a pact crafted by NASA and the U.S. State Department to set norms of behavior in space and on the lunar surface.
The pact was not signed by China and Russia.
So far, only Russia and Venezuela have agreed to participate in China’s lunar station programme.
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