HELSINKI — China’s human spaceflight agency has stated its goal to land astronauts on the moon before the top of the last decade.
“Recently, the moon landing phase of China’s crewed lunar exploration program has began. The principal goal is to send Chinese astronauts to land on the moon for the primary time by 2030,” Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), told media at a press conference on the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center May 29.
“Specializing in this goal, the CMSA has began planning, research and construction work on the premise of previous key technical breakthroughs and solution verifications,” Lin said.
“This includes the event of a brand new generation manned carrier rocket, namely the Long March 10 launch vehicle, a brand new generation crew spacecraft, a lunar lander, a moon suit and other spaceflight products. The development of a brand new launch site and tests on related launch facilities are also underway.”
As previously reported, China has been quietly working on a lunar lander for numerous years and this 12 months unveiled an apparent model of the spacecraft.
A low Earth orbit variant of the rocket newly designated the Long March 10, based on the five-meter-diameter Long March 5, is predicted to have a test flight in 2027. A pair of three-stage, triple-core Long March 10 variants for trans-lunar injection (27 tons to TLI) can be used to launch the landing stack and crewed segments of the lunar landing mission. China has already carried out a full scale boiler plate test of the new-gen spacecraft.
China’s coastal Wenchang spaceport is currently being expanded to host business launches, and can even be the positioning for the in-development Long March 10 and the larger Long March 9 rocket.
CMSA also announced May 29 a call for plans for a lunar crew rover, potentially using a business development model.
The Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang, northeast China, recently unveiled a lunar simulation chamber to help preparations for future lunar exploration.
“The goal also includes carrying out lunar scientific exploration and related technological experiments, mastering key technologies corresponding to Earth-Moon crewed round-trips, lunar surface short-term stays, and human-robot joint exploration in addition to completing multiple missions corresponding to landing, roving, sampling, researching and returning, in order to form an independent crewed lunar exploration capability,” said Lin.
The press conference was held ahead of the launch of the Shenzhou-16 crewed mission to the Tiangong space station. Launch is ready for 9:31 p.m. Eastern May 29. The crew can be greeted aboard Tiangong by the outgoing Shenzhou-15 crew, which has been in orbit since November.
The crewed landing plan noted by Lin is for 2 astronauts to conduct a six-hour stay on the lunar surface, with one other crew member remaining aboard a service module in lunar orbit.
The short term stay nevertheless is linked to a long term project. The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) is a Chinese-led initiative which goals to construct a everlasting, initially robotic moon base within the 2030s. China is currently attracting members to hitch a corporation established to coordinate the trouble, which amounts to a parallel development to the U.S.-led Artemis Program and Artemis Accords.
China’s government has yet to openly and officially approve the crewed landing project, likely since the timeline lies beyond the scope of the present Five-year Plan (2021-2025).
Nonetheless an area white paper published in January 2022 stated that China will “proceed studies and research on the plan for a human lunar landing… and research key technologies to put a foundation for exploring and developing cislunar space.”