Joe Biden’s disastrous administration from hell has pushed China and Russia into a tight relationship that hurts US interests all around the world – and in outer space, too.
Two years ago, China’s National Space Administration teamed up with Russian space agency Roscosmos to develop research facilities on the surface of the moon by 2035, collaborating in the planning, design, development and operation of the research station.
But latest developments suggest the two nations have accelerated their deadlines, trying to be faster than NASA’s Project Artemis.
“Not only does Beijing want to get Chinese boots on the surface [of the Moon] within the next seven years, it may also beat the US to having a permanent outpost there.
NASA has previously revealed a goal of establishing its own Artemis Base Camp by the 2030s, a timeline which would put the two countries on a collision course and set up the mouth-watering prospect of an epic 21st century space race.
Wu Weiren, the physicist who leads China’s moon mission, told state media that Beijing wants to create a lunar science and research station before the end of the decade.
‘By 2030, the footprints of the Chinese people will be left on the moon,’ he said. ‘There’s no question about it’.”
While China launched its space program later than the American, in these last few years it has found a lot of success, after it became the first country to land on the far side of the moon and sending a probe that successfully brought back rock and soil from the surface of Earth’s satellite.
Pioneer Russia lost its monopoly on taking astronauts to the International Space station, but ‘Moscow still has significant expertise and is clearly seen by China as the ideal partner in its moon base endeavors.’
“Although the original goal was to build the lunar outpost by 2035, it appears Beijing and Moscow now have one eye on going toe-to-toe with NASA in the race to become the dominant global force in space.”
This will make for a nerve-wrecking space race, since leaked documents last year suggested NASA was targeting 2034 for the beginning of its moon base-building venture, and not 2028, like previously announced.
This means that the US and China will be building their lunar bases roughly at the same time, and – what’s more – in the same area: the Moon’s south pole.
In the moon as in Earth, when it comes to ‘real estate’, only three things matter: ‘location, location and location’.
America and China-Russia chose the lunar south pole for their bases because it is known to contain large amounts of water ice that could be harvested for future colonies.
NASA is also looking to extract oxygen, which is surprisingly plentiful in moon rocks, and metals like aluminum.
“Mission planners are looking for spots that feature easy access to solar energy, good communication linkage with Earth and modest slopes that allow access to nearby Permanently Shadowed Regions, or PSRs in space speak. Researchers believe that PSRs likely contain water ice deposits. That resource could be extracted and processed into usable items, such as oxygen, water and rocket propellant.”
