China to sign new 5-year space cooperation program with Russia to build International lunar station by 2035
The Americans surely have a plan to build a Lunar station in near future. The US lunar exploration project is known as the “Artemis Accords,”. Even India is going to do it within the foreseeable future both in stand alone mode and in cooperation with friendly other countries.
Now China has decided to sign a new space Cooperation Program for 2023-2027 next year, which will include a plan to create an open and inclusive International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) by 2035 said Russia’s national space agency Roscosmos.
The new program will also include plans to support the development of the ground segment of the two countries’ national satellite systems, Russia’s GLONASS and China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) to be installed next year, as well as a slate of exciting projects Roscosmos and the China National Space Agency (CNSA) will work on in the coming decades as the two countries join forces to achieve new heights in the sphere of space exploration.
Creation of lunar outpost for all
As the largest current cooperation project between the two “longstanding and reliable partners” in the space field, the ILRS provides for the construction of a station by 2035 on the lunar surface, while experimental and research facilities for a wide range of scientific work would operate in lunar orbit, the Russian national space agency’s press service said in a statement.
Roscosmos revealed that it is assumed the ILRS will include an Earth-to-Lunar flight system, an auxiliary long term operation system on the lunar surface, a lunar surface travel and operations system and automatic facilities with complexes of scientific instruments.
The scope of cooperation between Beijing and Moscow in the project would include strategy development and coordination related to lunar exploration and use, identifying areas of cooperation and planning, and cooperation in launching component parts of the ILRS, joint operation, control, including ground station support, and other activities, as well as joint conceptual and preliminary design, modeling and validation of the ILRS and its components.
The extensive cooperation plans that China and Russia are developing indicate a high-level of mutual trust. This type of cooperation will not only benefit them both but bring greater help to enrich mankind’s understanding toward the vast universe.
The two heads of the CNSA and Roscosmos signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on joint construction of an international lunar research station via video link, which stressed the principles of joint consultation, construction and sharing, to push forward cooperation concerning the building of the international research station on the moon.
Phase-4 missions
Wu Yanhua, deputy administrator with the CNSA, recently disclosed to media that state authorities have approved the fourth phase of China’s lunar missions, which will include new Chang’e-6, 7 and 8 missions, which are expected to be carried out in the next decade. The Chang’e-7 probe will be to the lunar South Pole first, which will be followed by Chang’e-6 for a sampling and return mission from the lunar South Pole.
And Chang’e-8, the last piece of the fourth phase, will construct a primary form of the ILRS. China will lead those three lunar missions, Russia’s cooperation in the joint creation of the ILRS can be expected in the process, and They will join hands to explore the lunar environment and resources in the quest to find out how to peacefully use lunar resources to lay solid ground for the future.
Adding to its cooperation with the upcoming Chang’e lunar exploration series, Roscosmos said they have begun implementing interagency agreements with CNSA in the coordination of the Russian Luna-Resurs-1 (OA) orbital spacecraft and the Chinese Chang’e-7 mission, as well as on cooperation in the creation of a joint Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Data Center, which was signed on September 17, 2019.
“A particular feature of this project is the openness to participation by other international partners,” Roscosmos said. Moscow “expects space-research initiatives to be more open and cooperative, not facilitating ‘NATO-in-space’ political projects.”
“It is exemplified by such outstanding initiatives of bilateral cooperation as the International Lunar Research Station, which also comes with foreign policy implications. Russia – though invited by the US to participate – has criticized similar Moon research project by NASA blaming the “Artemis” project for its exclusive nature by mimicking a space-based NATO,” Bochkov noted.
” Compatibility & Complementarity
The 2018-2022 Russian-Chinese space cooperation program will end next year, Roscosmos said, adding that the program has proven to be an effective tool for stimulating bilateral cooperation at the industry level.
In addition, work is under way to develop Russian-Chinese cooperation in the field of satellite navigation, in particular to ensure the compatibility and complementarity of the GLONASS and BeiDou (BDS) navigation systems.
On November 29, 2021, the Russian-Chinese Roadmap for Cooperation in Satellite Navigation for 2021-2025 was signed, which includes plans for the integrated and innovative development of GLONASS and BDS.
Specifically, there are plans to support the development of the ground segment of national satellite systems. In this regard, both sides have identified locations of mutual ground measuring stations for GLONASS and BDS, which are to be installed in 2022, Roscosmos said.
