Senegal Joins China’s ILRS Moon Project

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Senegal Joins China’s ILRS Moon Project​

September 5, 2024

Maram Kaire (ASES) and Li Guoping (CNSA) sign a memorandum of understanding on the ILRS, Sept. 5, 2024. Source: Deep Space Exploration Laboratory.

The Senegalese Space Study Agency (ASES) has signed an agreement with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to join the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). ASES director Maram Kaire signed the agreement with the CNSA chief engineer, Li Guoping, on September 5, 2024. This was done during the opening ceremony of a two-day conference, the Second International Conference on Deep Space Exploration (Tiandu), held in Tunxi, Anhui, China.

Thus, Senegal joins other national-level partners on the ILRS project, including Egypt and South Africa. Additionally, organisations such as the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), the African Space Development Foundation and the African Business Alliance signed the “Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the International Lunar Research Station” with the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory. The Ethiopian Space Science and Geospatial Institute (SSGI) and the Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology also signed agreements in April 2024 to be part of the ILRS project.

This fete for Senegal comes shortly after the country launched its first satellite, Gaindesat-1A, on August 16, 2024. This underscores the rapid growth of the country’s space industry, which aims to cultivate a dynamic local space ecosystem that promotes research and fuels industrial innovation.

The ILRS serves as a scientific experimental facility, integrating components on the lunar surface, in lunar orbit, and on Earth. Engineers designed it as an expandable and maintainable system, supporting long-term robotic operations with periodic human involvement on the moon. The project will begin in 2028 and has attracted more than ten countries and 40 international organisations that have signed cooperation agreements.