Latest news with #Chang'e8
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
China signs deal with Russia to build a power plant on the moon — potentially leaving the US in the dust
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Russia has signed a deal with China to build a nuclear power plant on the moon. The Russian reactor will be used to power the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), jointly led by China and Russia, and should be completed by 2036, according to a memorandum of cooperation signed by the two nations. The announcement comes just after NASA revealed a 2026 budget proposal that would axe the agency's plans for an orbital lunar base. The construction of the Chinese-Russian reactor will likely be carried out autonomously "without the presence of humans," according to a 2024 interview with Yury Borisov, director general of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, on the Russian state-owned news site TASS. While details of how this can be achieved remain unclear, Borisov added that the technological steps are "almost ready." "The station will conduct fundamental space research and test technology for long-term uncrewed operations of the ILRS, with the prospect of a human being's presence on the Moon," Roscosmos wrote in a May 8 announcement following the signing of the memorandum. The new research station, a permanent, manned lunar base located on the moon's south pole, has so far attracted 17 countries to join the program — including Egypt, Pakistan, Venezuela, Thailand and South Africa. Its groundwork will be laid by China's 2028 Chang'e-8 mission, which will be the nation's first time landing an astronaut on the lunar surface. Related: Russia and China announce plan to build shared nuclear reactor on the moon by 2035, 'without humans' The roadmap for the ILRS was first unveiled in June 2021, with China and Russia announcing they would loft the pieces for a robotic moon base using five super heavy-lift rocket launches from 2030 to 2035. Once these basic pieces are established, China plans additional launches that will extend the base further, connecting it to a space station orbiting the moon and two nodes located at the moon's equator and its far side, Wu Yanhua, the chief designer of China's deep exploration project, said at a 2024 media conference, according to state media outlet Xinhua. This extended model, laying the foundations for manned landings on Mars, should be completed by 2050. It "will be powered by solar, radioisotope and nuclear generators," Wu said. "It will also include lunar-Earth and high-speed lunar surface communication networks, as well as lunar vehicles like a hopper, an unmanned long-range vehicle, and pressurized and unpressurized manned rovers." RELATED STORIES —Russia is developing a space-based nuclear weapon to target satellites, U.S. Congress reveals —China's secret space plane deploys 6 unknown objects in orbit, and some are emitting signals —Russian satellite narrowly avoids collision with US spacecraft, and NASA could do nothing to stop it The memorandum comes at a time of growing ambition for China's space programs. The country has had a lunar presence since the 2013 landing of the Chang'e 3 mission, which placed a rover on the moon. Subsequent missions landed more rovers on the moon and Mars, while collecting samples from the moon's near and far sides, and mapped out the lunar surface. China's race to build a lunar outpost also has an American rival in the Artemis program, which has recently been beset by delays. Artemis III, which will see NASA astronauts return to our nearest natural satellite for the first time in over 50 years, is expected to launch sometime in 2027. Meanwhile, the future of NASA's own planned lunar space station, dubbed Gateway and initially slated for launch as soon as 2027, has been thrown into question with the release of the Trump administration's proposed 2026 budget. The budget calls for canceling the Gateway mission, despite significant progress on building the station's modules.
Asia Times
25-04-2025
- Science
- Asia Times
US, China in hot race to put nuclear reactors on the moon
Imagine streaming your favorite show or scrolling through your phone, all from the comfort of a home base on the moon. Within the next decade, that sci-fi dream will edge closer to reality – the question is, will an American, Chinese or Russian get there first? For humans to settle and reside on the moon, scientists must solve two big problems: finding water and generating power. Now, the United States and China, with the help of Russia, are in a high-stakes race to crack the latter by building lunar nuclear reactors. Both superpowers are now pushing ahead with plans to install fission power plants on the moon's surface. America's NASA is aiming to launch its Fission Surface Power (FSP) system by the early 2030s, while China and Russia plan to build a lunar reactor between 2033 and 2035. But this is more than a race for power in space. It's a contest over who will shape the rules — and reap the benefits — of the new frontier. On April 23, a top Chinese space official publicly discussed the country's lunar nuclear ambitions for the first time. Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration program, told Reuters he hopes China and Russia will jointly build a reactor to power the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), citing Russia's global leadership in nuclear space tech. 'An important question for the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) is power supply. Russia has a natural advantage when it comes to nuclear power plants, especially when sending them into space. It leads the world and it is ahead of the US,' Wu said. In previous interviews, he said China will send two unmanned spacecraft, Chang'e 7 and Chang'e 8, to the moon in 2026 and 2028, respectively. Chinese astronauts will land on the moon around 2030. He said Chang'e 7 would search for ice on the moon's South Pole while Chang'e 8 would set up telecommunication and energy systems there. He said lunar minerals can be melted at 1,400-1,500 degrees Celsius to produce bricks, which he said can be used to build houses for the ILRS project. In a presentation in Shanghai cited by Reuters, the 2028 mission's Chief Engineer Pei Zhaoyu showed that the lunar base's energy supply could also depend on large-scale solar arrays, and pipelines and cables for heating and electricity built on the moon's surface. On March 5 last year, Yury Borisov, chief executive of Russia's State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos), the main successor to the Soviet space program, said Russia and China planned to install a nuclear reactor on the moon in 2033-2035. He said the reactor would have to be built by machines, and the necessary technological solutions were almost ready. He said solar power would not be enough to support lunar settlements. Borisov stressed that Russia had no plans to send nuclear weapons to space. An academic paper said the ILRS will cover an area with a radius of up to six kilometers. The circle in the center with a radius of one kilometer will be a hub, while the main activity area will cover an area with a radius of three kilometers. While China and Russia have set a target for a lunar nuclear plant, NASA has a full roadmap. In 2022, NASA awarded three US$5 million contracts to teams led by Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX (a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy) to build the FSP reactors. They tested their preliminary designs at the Idaho National Laboratory. NASA specified that the reactor should stay under six metric tons and be able to produce 40 kilowatts (kw) of electrical power, ensuring enough for demonstration purposes and additional power available for running lunar habitats, rovers, backup grids or science experiments. In the US, 40 kw can, on average, provide electrical power for 33 households. NASA will ask the industry to design the final reactor this year. In the early 2030s, NASA will send the reactor to the moon for a one-year demonstration, followed by nine years of operation. It will then modify the reactor's design and send one to Mars. In January this year, China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIEA) researchers Shi Yunda and Zhao Shouzhi published a paper titled 'Study on nuclear design of long-life lunar surface nuclear reactor power supply based on annular fuel.' They suggested minor changes that can reduce the American FSP reactor's nuclear fuel (uranium-235) loading by 75% to 18.46 kilograms. In 2017, Zhao and another CIAE researcher, Hu Gu, co-published a paper titled 'Overview of space nuclear reactor power technology' in China's Journal of Deep Space Exploration. 'Space nuclear reactor power has clear and extensive military and civilian purposes,' they said. 'This technology is one of the disruptive technologies.' They admitted that the US and the Soviet Union had spent decades developing space-use nuclear reactors and had acquired many core technologies. They said China's development of space nuclear reactor power should be unique. The technology race on the moon is an extension of the geopolitical fight on Earth. In October 2020, NASA launched the Artemis Accords, an international initiative to promote safe and sustainable space exploration. Fifty-four nations, including developed and emerging countries, have signed the accords. In March 2021, China and Russia signed a Memorandum of Understanding to construct the ILRS. The duo planned to build the basic model of a permanent base on the moon by 2035 and an extended model in the 2040s. So far, 17 countries and more than 50 international research institutions have joined the ILRS, mostly Russian and Chinese allies in the Global South. The European Space Agency (ESA) ruled out joining the ILRS after Russia invaded Ukraine. 'The ILRS' development trend is very good, but compared to the United States' Artemis Accords, ours is much smaller in terms of countries because the US is always interfering in our cooperation with other countries, including Europe,' Wu told foreign media on April 23, without elaborating on the allegation. Before this, Beijing had repeatedly criticized the US for passing the Wolf Amendment in 2011, which prohibited NASA from partnering with Chinese institutions. In the past decade, China has pushed its lunar exploration program and sought support from Russia to boost its space technologies. However, Russia has reportedly been reluctant to share its rocket engines and nuclear technologies with China. Russia faced a significant space race setback in August 2023 when its Luna-25 spacecraft crashed on the moon's surface. Bian Zhigang, deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said on April 23 that lunar exploration activities are evolving from short-term missions to long-term construction, from single-craft exploration to multi-craft collaboration and from national missions to international cooperation. Bian said the modes of exploration and cooperation are undergoing fundamental changes. He added that the ILRS will offer new opportunities and platforms for fostering global intelligence integration, technological innovation, inclusive cooperation and shared development. Read: China and SpaceX envision reaching Mars in different ways
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
China to 3D-print bricks on the moon using lunar dirt in 2028 to pave way for future base (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. China is getting ready to 3D-print bricks on the moon using lunar soil, in what could be a huge step toward building a base on the lunar surface. The Chang'e 8 spacecraft is currently scheduled to launch around 2028. The mission is planned as a stepping stone to China's International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) and could, potentially, mark a big breakthrough for moon exploration and habitation. As sending anything to the moon is extremely expensive, using materials already present on the lunar surface, known as in-situ resource utilization, has the potential to hugely cut costs and expand possibilities. That's where Chang'e 8 will look to change the game for lunar exploration with 3D printing technology. "Now we have developed the world's first device that produces bricks made of lunar soil. This system harnesses sunlight, collects solar energy, and transmits it to the moon using fiber optics," Wu Weiren, chief designer of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, told China Central Television (CCTV). "By concentrating the sunlight, we can achieve temperatures between 1400 to 1500 degrees Celsius [2,552 to 2732 degrees Fahrenheit], which is sufficient to melt lunar soil. Our device then utilizes 3D printing technology to shape the molten material into bricks of various specifications. This approach allows us to utilize resources found on the moon, free from transporting water and other materials from the Earth," Wu said. A successful test would go a long way toward allowing China to plan and carry out more ambitious construction endeavors on the moon. Related: Building blocks: How China plans to make bricks on the moon for lunar habitats RELATED STORIES: — China to test lunar-soil bricks in space to pave the way for its planned moon base — Are we prepared for Chinese preeminence on the moon and Mars? (op-ed) — China unveils video of its moon base plans, which weirdly includes a NASA space shuttle This is also not the first step that China has made in this area. China has already sent a sample of bricks made from different compositions of lunar soil simulant, meant to mimic real moon regolith, to its Tiangong space station. These will remain outside Tiangong for three years to test their durability in the harsh thermal, radiation and vacuum conditions of outer space and help assess their suitability for building lunar habitats. Before Chang'e 8, China will launch Chang'e 7 in 2026 to explore the environment and resources at the south pole of the moon with a particular focus on the search for water. The detection of water ice could mean there is a source of drinking water, oxygen and rocket fuel production capabilities already waiting on the moon. The mission will employ a hopping robot to explore permanently shadowed craters and look for evidence of water ice. "That's why we say we will be looking for water. Is there water in the craters? If so, that would be a huge discovery and a monumental achievement," Wu said. The plans follow on from a series of successful orbiter, lander and rover and sample return missions carried out by China across the past two decades, most recently with the Chang'e 6 far side sample return last year. The country is also aiming to land its astronauts on the moon for the first time before 2030.
