China to consider building lunar station after moon landing by 2030

Beijing, July 12: China will explore the possibility of building a lunar research and experimental station and conducting systematic studies of the Earth’s natural satellite and technical tests after landing a person on the moon by 2030, Zhang Hailian, the deputy designer of the Chinese manned spaceflight program, said on Wednesday.

The China National Space Administration announced its plans to land a person on the moon by 2030.

“Our country plans to land a person on the moon for scientific research by 2030, after which we will look into the construction of a lunar research and experimental station, as well as conducting systematic and continuous research of the Earth’s natural satellite and related technical tests,” Zhang was quoted as saying by Chinese newspaper People’s Daily.

The engineer added that Chinese researchers were developing new equipment, including the Long March 10 carrier rocket, a manned spacecraft, a lunar lander and a manned lunar rover for the mission.

In April, China’s state media reported that Beijing planned to develop an experimental model of a satellite constellation for the deep space exploration, expecting to complete the first stage of building a pilot of the satellite constellation by 2030. By 2040, China would finish a basic satellite constellation to support manned exploration of the moon and deep space, including Venus and Mars. Around 2050, an extended model of the constellation is expected to be built to explore Venus, Mars, giant planets and the edge of the Solar System.

(UNI)