The leaders of the respective space agencies of the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on behalf of their national governments.
“China and Russia will use their accumulated experience in space science, research and development, as well as use space instruments and space technology to jointly develop a roadmap for the construction of the International Lunar Scientific Research Station (ILRS),” said China. Said the agency.
A statement from Roscosmos stated that the lunar space station built on the lunar surface and / or lunar orbit would be “a complex of experimental and research facilities”. These facilities will be built for a range of multiple disciplinary research, including “testing techniques with the possibility of long-term unmanned operations with the possibility of a human presence on the moon”.
China and Russia will now work on a roadmap for the design, development and operation of the station and “plan to introduce it to the world’s space community,” Roscosmos said.
The two countries have also signed agreements to jointly build a data center for exploration of the moon and deep space. They plan to cooperate in the future on China’s Change-7 and Russia’s Luna 27 missions, both of which aim to survey the lunar south pole.
In the midst of the Cold War space race with the United States, in 1960 the Soviets sent the first live animals into orbit, and again with space dogs, Belka and Strelka. Then in 1961 the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagri knocked the Americans out of space.
China was late in the space race – it did not send its first satellite into orbit until 1970, when the U.S. The astronaut had already landed on the moon – but he was quickly caught.
Encouraged by billions of dollars in government investment, China has rapidly accelerated its space program over the past decade, launching space laboratories and satellites into orbit.
In 2019, China became the first country to send an unmanned rover to the moon. In July 2020, China launched its first unmanned mission to Mars – the Tianwan-1 probe, which entered red planet orbit in February this year. The next step is to land the rover, which is expected to arrive in May or June.
And in December 2020, China’s unmanned Chang mission brought samples of the moon back to Earth – becoming the third country to successfully collect rocks from the moon.
Plans are also underway to send astronauts to the moon by the 2030s. If successful, U.S. citizens who put citizens on China. Then China will just become another country.
Anna Chernova of CNN contributed to this report.
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