Representatives of the China national space administration and European space Agency are currently leading the discussion about the potential cooperation in the construction of the orbital lunar base, as well as possible other joint projects in this sphere, reports Bloomberg, citing European and Chinese media.
The first of such discussion talking Chinese news Agency referring to the Secretary-General of the Chinese space Agency (CNSA) Tian Ulanga. The information was later confirmed by Paul Whitendale, representative of the European space Agency (ESA).
“China has a very ambitious program for the exploration of the moon,” said Hvistendahl.
“Space has changed dramatically since the space race of the 60-ies. We are well aware that only a peaceful development of the space and international cooperation in this direction will move us forward.”
The head of the Board of Directors of ESA, Johann-Dietrich wörner describes them as the proposed project “Lunar village” as a potential international launch pad for future missions to Mars, lead to a serious interest and the development of space tourism, as well as become a starting point for the development of lunar mining.
It should be noted that the Chinese space program is relatively recent. The first manned flight, China has carried out only in 2003, after more than 42 years since the first manned flight into space.
Last week, the China national space administration as part of the mission by docking with the now empty Chinese space station, launched unmanned spacecraft. By the end of the year, the Agency plans to launch an unmanned mission to the moon. In its implementation the planned landing on the Lunar surface, collecting samples of lunar soil and return back to Earth. Next year’s CNSA wants to send to the moon another unmanned mission. The device should be offline, the network on the reverse side of our satellite, and also collect soil samples and return to Earth.
“The European space Agency would like to access the sample analysis that will bring home Chinese drone “Chang’e-5″ and also address the issue of holding the European launch and docking with the Chinese space station in the future,” explained Hvistendahl, while noting that any final phase of finding the right agreement, it has not yet reached.
It should be recalled that China was excluded from the list of countries eligible to use the International space station. Mostly “thanks” to the U.S. law that prohibits such cooperation because of concerns about the strong military ties to the Chinese space program.
China is discussing with ESA the possibility of building a lunar orbital base
Nikolai Khizhnyak