China calls the US a ‘competitor’ in moon race for first time, from a position of strength
- China has outlined its lunar ambitions in a new plan, and for the first time has acknowledged it is in a race for the moon with the US
China said it would never compete with the US on the moon. Now it has changed its mind.
Human exploration of the moon has always been competitive. It began with the tug of war between America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
“In the historical context of that period, the race to demonstrate superior political strength made lunar exploration unsustainable,” the plan said.
The new plan, “Strategic Concept of Resource Utilisation Development Route of the International Lunar Research Station”, was written under the leadership of Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of CNSA’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Centre, and published in the Chinese Journal of Astronautics in April.
“And countries such as the United States do not have a distinct edge in this.”
Washington has long cast China as a rival in this new rush for the moon, seeing the race mainly as a land grab.
But China sees the game differently, according to Pei.
Beijing aims to replicate its earthly success by carrying out large-scale infrastructure construction on the moon. It will help establish technological, manufacturing and economic advantages to encourage more countries to stop following the United States and join China-led efforts to exploit lunar resources, according to the plan.
“The utilisation of lunar resources is a scientific challenge, a technological drive and an economic reward. Efficiency and benefit will be the core evaluation benchmarks, guiding the construction, operation and sustainable development,” Pei’s team wrote.
These hydrogen and oxygen molecules, trapped in lunar soil particles, indicated the potential presence of up to 270 billion tonnes of water resources on the moon, which could be used to produce rocket fuel, water and oxygen for astronauts, Chinese space authorities said on social media.
According to the latest plan, China will launch two large spacecraft in the next few years to conduct detailed explorations of these resources and validate key technologies for resource utilisation. By 2030, collaborative work between humans and intelligent machines is expected to be achieved on the lunar surface.
A “lunar-based resource exploration system covering a wide area of thousands of kilometres and a depth of hundreds of metres” will also be completed in this period.
By 2045, China’s lunar base will have large facilities such as power plants, factories, scientific research institutions, rocket launch sites, tourist centres and a small underground city.
Chinese resource exploration robots will roam the entire lunar surface. It is estimated that more than half of the investment in the construction and operation of these facilities will come from countries other than China, and economic activities will reach a break-even point. Humans will use this base as a starting point to explore Mars.
“China will become a leader in human deep space exploration activities,” the plan said.
China’s first lunar probe, Chang’e-1, was launched in 2007. Because of a lack of experience and confidence, this small, two-tonne satellite circled around the Earth for more than two weeks before heading to the moon.
Immediately after the launch, then-commander-in-chief of the lunar exploration project, Luan Enjie, told Xinhua News Agency: “China will not engage in any form of lunar competition with any country.”
Although the United States started lunar exploration earlier, due to mission delays and funding limitations, “it has lost its absolute leading position”, Pei’s team wrote.
To counter China’s advances, the US government has entrusted private enterprises with critical lunar missions, believing they can construct a lunar base more efficiently than Nasa. To motivate these private players, the US Congress enacted a law affirming the principle: “First to explore, first to own.”
The US Skylab space laboratory operated for less than a year before it crashed, and the core technology of the International Space Station is provided by Russia.