China has unveiled a comprehensive blueprint for the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) during an international conference on deep space exploration in Tunxi District, east China’s Anhui Province. The announcement has ignited significant interest among global space agencies and organizations.
At the second International Deep Space Exploration Conference, a two-day forum, China’s space agency and Senegal’s counterpart signed an agreement to cooperate on the ILRS. Furthermore, China’s Deep Space Exploration Lab signed memorandums of understanding with ten organizations from countries including Serbia, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Panama, and South Africa.
The ILRS initiative, mapped out by China in 2017, aims to establish a sustainable lunar research base. Many other countries and entities have also planned lunar missions in the coming years, including India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, SpaceX, and Blue Origin.
Recent scientific discoveries have fueled the drive for lunar exploration. Chinese scientists found a new type of mineral in lunar samples brought back by the Chang’e-5 mission, which contains water in its molecular structure. Scientists have detailed a process to extract up to 76 kilograms of water from one tonne of lunar regolith. Last year, NASA produced a map showing the distribution of water molecules near the moon’s south pole.
The presence of water on the moon makes the prospect of a long-term human presence more feasible, which is crucial for conducting extensive lunar research. Nasr Al-Sahhaf, chair of the International Moon Day Group, expressed aspirations to utilize these findings: “We would like to build a laboratory so that we can extract this water and build something from it,” he said.
The challenges of establishing a lunar research station are significant. With no atmosphere and only one-sixth of Earth’s gravity, the lunar environment is harsh and vastly different from Earth’s. Zhang Zexu, a professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology and director of its research center for deep space exploration, highlighted the obstacles: “It is first necessary to overcome the extreme temperatures on the lunar surface, frequent moonquakes, unpredictable micrometeorites, as well as cosmic particle radiation environment.”
Jan Kolar, vice president of the Moon Village Association and former president of the Czech Space Office, emphasized the risks: “These aspects are still not fully secured, and the technical solutions are just on paper and in the laboratory. This will be, at the moment, the most risky part of any mission to the moon.”
Global collaboration is seen as key to overcoming these challenges. At an event marking the third International Moon Day on July 20, experts and young engineers gathered to transform challenges into opportunities. Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, president of the Space Explorer Association and Romania’s first astronaut, underscored the importance of unity: “When you fly into space, you see the Earth as unity, as a home for all of us, and everything becomes interdependent. So we have to think globally.”
The Moon Station 2050 Global Innovation Competition, a new international initiative co-organized by the Harbin Institute of Technology, the China Aerospace Society, and the International Lunar Village Association, showcased innovative solutions from the younger generation. With 189 entries from 45 countries, the competition reflected global enthusiasm for lunar exploration.
Projects addressed crucial aspects of building a lunar research lab, including transportation, energy utilization, architecture, robotics, and telecommunications. A team of aeronautical and astronautical engineering students from Tsinghua University designed a system of lightweight robots capable of drilling into lunar soil to acquire comprehensive data. “A lot of them can drill inside the lunar soil to explore so that we can acquire comprehensive data about the insightful resources for aiding to construct the moon station,” explained team member Chan Nga Teng.
Lucas-Brian Christen, a research student at the University of Tokyo, and his team proposed a new type of thin-film solar cells that can be printed directly onto the lunar regolith, offering a solution for energy utilization using in-situ resources.
“The moon is part of the Earth, so being able to understand what’s happening on the moon, around the moon, in between the moon and the Earth is fundamental for all humanity,” said Giuseppe Reibaldi, president of the Moon Village Association. “And therefore, on these issues, you must unite all the countries in the world.”
Reference(s):
To the moon: What will a research station on the moon look like?
cgtn.com
