Russia and China enter the lunar race with the United States

Sergey Kron

Director of the Chinese National Space Agency Wu Yanhua boasted to reporters: ILRS will have an orbiter, a residential base on the surface of the moon, as well as several research rovers, that is, planetary rovers.

Popular Mechanics magazine, in turn, clarified that in the future space partners plan to deploy infrastructure, which, according to scientists, includes power supply, communications and life support systems on the lunar base. True, the ILRS project will be open for other countries to join in the future. "We welcome the broad participation of international colleagues," Wu Yanhua said.

Moscow is also not silent. The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has repeatedly stated that the US economy "will not pull" the expensive lunar program.

Few people know, but before his resignation, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at the commercial development of resources on the Moon and other celestial bodies. He directs the American administration to "oppose any attempt to treat outer space as the common property of mankind." Thus, since April last year, the United States has not recognized the Agreement on the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, adopted by a resolution of the UN General Assembly in December 1979.

According to this resolution, the exploration and use of the Moon is the property of all mankind and is carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, regardless of their degree of economic or scientific development.

Therefore, the "invitation" of the Chinese official did not interest the specialists of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) - the United States has long had its own program for the exploration of the Moon, which involves the construction of a base at the South Pole of the Earth's natural satellite.

A NASA special report to the US President notes that the base, called Artemis Base Camp, will consist of three main elements: a manned lunar rover to transport astronauts over short distances, a residential mobile platform for travel up to 45 days, and a main habitable module that can accommodate four people.

In addition, the American lunar base will be equipped with infrastructure for autonomous power supply, communication with the Earth, radiation protection, a landing site, and a container for radioactive waste disposal.

As conceived by Donald Trump and his supporters at NASA, Artemis Base Camp will be the first foothold on the lunar surface, and indeed in space.

The Americans didn't stop there. They also wanted to build a lunar Gateway station. It will accommodate those astronauts who will not work on the surface of the moon.

NASA also hopes that in the future the Gateway will be able to be used as an intermediate module for further flights to Mars.

NASA expects to land astronauts on the moon in 2024 and send them to Mars around the mid-2030s.

Last spring, NASA reported that it had received more than 12,000 applications from Americans wishing to take part in the selection of a new generation of astronauts for flights to the Moon and Mars. They came from residents of all states and territories of the United States, as well as the metropolitan District of Columbia.