China’s manned Moon ‘palace’ to launch Mars missions

‘We believe that the Chinese nation’s dream of residing in a ‘lunar palace’ will soon become a reality’

CHINA has announced plans to build a manned Moon base to act as a launchpad for missions to Mars and to explore lunar resources.

The outpost is expected to have “multiple tube cabins that interconnect and provide oxygen to people inside”, according to an official video seen by Chinese media.

The scientific research base, which will be partly sustained by solar power, marks the latest step in Beijing’s ambitious space programme.

“We believe that the Chinese nation’s dream of residing in a ‘lunar palace’ will soon become a reality,” the newspaper China Daily quoted the country’s National Space Administration’s video as saying.

The paper said it was the first time that China had made public its plans for a lunar outpost. In April last year, a Chinese space official had said Beijing was discussing a future Moon base with the European Space Agency, but few details later emerged.

Then, last November, administra-

tion officials said China was “conducting a feasibility study for a robotic outpost on the lunar surface to conduct scientific research and technological experiments”, China Daily reported.

No schedule for the construction of the base was revealed, nor any details given for how it would operate.

China is due to send a lunar probe to the far side of the Moon later this year.

The mission will also involve an ambitious experiment which scientists hope will see flowers, potatoes and silkworms grown on the lunar surface.

China became the third country to put a man in space with its own rocket in 2003 and it carried out a lunar rover mission 10 years later.

Experts believe China aims to land a man on the Moon sometime after 2030, while last year an official said that it would “not take long” before Beijing approved a manned lunar project.