China is planning a moon research base that may reshape the space race

[beijingwalker]

China is planning a moon research base that may reshape the space race
14:56, 26-Nov-2020

Not long after China's Chang'e-5 moon sampler was launched into space, an official working at China's space program mentioned again the plan for a moon research base.

"Chang'e-6, 7 and 8 will be gradually carried out," said Xu Hongliang, Secretary General at the China National Space Administration (CNSA), China's equivalent of NASA.

"An international lunar research base is also planned," he added.

The launch of Chang'e-5 sample-return vehicle on November 24, 2020. /CFP


A moon base is very likely to host the first humans living on the surface of a sphere other than planet Earth, which can make history.

When will we see that happen? In 10 years, maybe.

Zhang Kejian, head of CNSA who made it to the 2019 version of TIME 100 list, told media back in 2019 that the moon base will be completed in "about 10 years."

China is already making some progress with the "Yuegong-1," a self-contained laboratory that can help humans survive on the moon. Early experiments in 2017 and 2018 showed that volunteers can survive a year in the lab.

A total of 97 percent of the lab is self-contained. That means China only need to send three percent of stuff to the moon every year to keep the lab running all the time.

Volunteers living in the Yuegong-1 lunar base prototype. /CFP


More importantly, it will be an international project led by China involving other space powers in the world like Russia and Europe.

"It will be likely located on the southern end of the moon," Wu Weiren, the chief designing engineer of China's lunar project. "It will be used for peace purposes only and benefit all parties involved."

Russia has already turned down invitations from the U.S. to build a moon lab together and instead chose China to be the partner. And Europe is also paying close attention to China's lunar project, looking for chances of cooperation.

The U.S. may not be lucky this time because they blocked themselves from all Chinese space programs since 2011.

Possible weapon?

For sci-fi fans, this may remind them about Netflix TV comedy series "Space Force", which depicts a fictional fight between the Chinese and U.S. moon crew that destroyed the moon base of both nations.

Though the comedy made space war look funny, the reality is that a moon base could possibly be utilized as a weapon.

"We Chinese stand against space warfare," said Ouyang Zhiyuan, chief scientist at China's lunar project. "But that won't stop others using the moon in wars."

Controlling the high ground can be useful for soldiers. That's why people capture mountain tops and build castles during battles. In modern warfare, planes and satellites are often used to provide advantage in height.

The highest place humans have ever reached is the moon.

"Every space power is saying they want to build research facilities on the moon," Ouyang told Global People, "but it's only an excuse. What they actually want is occupying land on the moon."

Ouyang described the possibility of setting up light speed weapons on the moon. Such weapon can hit target on Earth in less than two seconds.

"And you can't destroy the weapon because it's too far away," he added.

Endless energy?

The moon may help humans to destroy ourselves, but it may also help us survive longer in the universe.

The moon has no atmosphere, so there's almost nothing blocking the sunlight. This makes the moon a great place to build solar power plants – maybe better than anywhere on Earth.

In addition, the moon may help us build an "endless" energy source – the artificial sun.

The international artificial sun project "ITER" starts assembly in France in July 2020. /CFP

Modern science has revealed that most of the energy we use today originated from sunlight – coal and oil are basically storage of ancient sunlight.

Scientists and engineers have been trying to build a smaller sun on Earth for decades. And Helium-3 is a great fuel to that.

100 tons of Helium-3 can generate the energy needed by all humans for a year. And there may be a million tons of Helium-3 on the moon – which can help humans survive another 10,000 years.

Building the artificial sun requires many strict conditions, some of which can be easily met on the moon since the sphere has much less gravity than the Earth.

Listen to CGTN's Zou Yue explaining why the "artificial sun" can change everything.

Imagine if we don't need oil anymore. Lots of wars will become pointless and we may enjoy one of the most peaceful ages ever. Isn't that great?

And that's why we should continue the effort of lunar exploration. China's international moon lab could be a good start.

China is planning a moon research base that may reshape the space race

The moon means much more than the Earth's largest and only satellite.

news.cgtn.com

 

[zectech]

Don't partner with Russia in a moon base. Russians would amount to spies and unwanted guests on the moon, especially in case of a conflict. If these are bases for military and civilian purposes, it would be like inviting Russians into Chinese military bases permanently.

 

[beijingwalker]

Is China winning the new space race?
By John Bridges 18 hours ago

China's Yutu 2 rover, as seen by the Chang'e 4 lander on the far side of the moon.
(Image: © CNSA)


China has been the only country to land on the Moon for over 40 years – since the Soviet Luna program. Its recent Chang’e missions (1-4) demonstrated that China could not only orbit and land on the Moon, but also successfully operate a rover. On November 24, the Chinese National Space Administration launched Chang’e 5 – the latest in the series.

This mission to collect and return samples is impressive. Recent failed landings on the Moon by an Israeli privately funded mission and the Indian Vikram lander show just how challenging such missions still are.

So is this solely a case of China using space exploration to show the world that its new scientific and technological capabilities rival those in the west? And if so, what are the consequences?

The mission
Chang’e 5 (named after the Chinese goddess of the Moon) is intended to collect samples from Mons Rümker, a 70km-wide, 500 metre- high dome made of basalt in the Oceanus Procellarum Mare region of the Moon’s nearside.


The plan is to then bring back 2kg of drilled and scooped samples to Earth. If the mission succeeds, planetary scientists will be able to test some key theories about the origin of the Moon and the inner Solar System’s rocky planets, which date back to the Apollo era


The age of a rocky body can be estimated based on its density of craters. The longer a body has existed, the more debris will have bombarded its surface. But it isn’t a very precise measurement. Estimates of the age of Mons Rümker and its surrounding area, derived from the number of impact craters on it, have ranged from over 3 billion to 1 billion years.


The absolute age of returned samples will be determined with radiometric dating. This is a method of dating geological specimens by working out the relative proportions of particular radioactive isotopes (elements with more or fewer particles in the atomic nucleus than the standard substance) that they contain. This will help us better understand how crater density corresponds to age. And that can then be used to improve crater-density age models of surfaces on the Moon and Mars, Mercury and Venus.


The new space race

Few would argue with the fact that the rise of China’s space program – which involves satellites, human missions and a space station planned for 2022 – has been rapid and successful. But it has competition. The US-led Artemis Program has set an aim to return humans to the Moon by 2024, which would notably be before any Chinese taikonaut landing.


The European Space Agency also has its own plans for the Moon, including the European Large Logistics Lander EL3, which aims to deliver a 1.3-tonne lander with new scientific experiments in the late 2020s. However, China’s plans for the Moon are becoming more ambitious than Europe’s. A new cohort of 18 Chinese trainee taikonauts has recently started their training with long-term aims of crewing their new space station, walking on the Moon and ultimately reaching Mars.


The rocket fuel for this rapid growth is research spending in China. The country is close to reaching its aim of spending 2.5% of its growing GDP on research and development. This is closing the gap on the United States, which spent 2.8% of GDP in 2018. The UK currently spends about 1.7% of its GDP on research and development.

China’s capabilities will no doubt continue to grow. As a scientist in the west, I wonder how this will shape research in future generations. Will Chinese universities start to lead space research and influence rankings that are currently dominated by western universities? Is this rapid development a good thing, given that the Chinese state is not democratic?

There are reasons for optimism, such as potential collaboration – at least between Europe and China. The fact that many geochemical models of lunar and planetary formation have their roots in the 380 kg of samples brought back by the Apollo missions means that there is worldwide excitement among scientists about sampling a new area of the Moon. Planetary scientists in the west are in fact taking a keen interest in Chang’e 5 and the Chinese lunar program.

One of my earliest memories of space science was seeing the successful US-Soviet Skylab space station link up in 1973-74. That was a counter balance to the cold war era politics of the time, and it happened despite the absence of democracy in the Soviet Union.


As a university scientist, I believe that the presence of many Chinese students on our campuses over the last decade could help promote future collaboration and changes. COVID-19 is hindering that now, so I will be hoping that Chang’e 5 is successful and becomes a route to future collaboration which might help defuse tension.

Is China winning the new space race?

China has been the only country to land on the Moon for over 40 years – since the Soviet Luna programme.

www.livescience.com

 

[jamahir]

Imagine if we don't need oil anymore. Lots of wars will become pointless and we may enjoy one of the most peaceful ages ever. Isn't that great?

The "oil wars" are not really for oil but for supremacy of the Western bloc.