China is preparing to conquer the Moon within the next seven years. This forecast was made by a leading Chinese lunar scientist.
“By 2030, the Chinese people will definitely be able to set foot on the moon. That’s not a problem,” Wu Weiren, the chief developer of the Chinese lunar exploration program, said in an interview with the Chinese television company CCTV.
If you look at the latest achievements of China in recent years, then such a forecast will not seem impossible. The Celestial Empire launched its own orbital station, landed a rover on the Red Planet and conquered the far side of the Moon with its lunar rover. Now China is working on the necessary equipment for landing astronauts on the Moon.
The country is developing a next-generation rocket to launch a heavy spacecraft and at the same time work is underway on a landing module for the Moon. The test flight of the new rocket is scheduled for 2027.
The head of the Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), Wu Yansheng, earlier this year presented an animated presentation showing what the upcoming landing of a Chinese crew on the Moon might look like.
The mission that Wu Weiren mentions will allow for a short landing on the surface of the Moon. However, China is also considering the construction of a permanent base, which is planned to be built in the mid-2030s. The first steps for this ambitious project include robotic missions to the south pole of the Moon to test the use of 3D printing technology to create Lego-like bricks from lunar soil to quickly build a room for astronauts.
Earlier we reported on how China built a replica of the Starship rocket.
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