China’s space agency reveals details of manned flight to the moon

Yesterday, China’s Manned Space Flight Program announced the details of a taikonaut flight to the moon, which is planned to be completed by 2030. In orbit of the Moon, a temporary station will be created from several modules, from which the taikonauts will descend to the surface of the Earth satellite and conduct research there. After that, they will return to the station and, having transferred to the main ship, will go back to Earth.

The leadership of China’s Manned Space Flight Program (CSMA) officially presented the main stages of the flight to the moon, which should occur before 2030. More exact dates have not yet been announced.

For the descent and ascent of taikonauts to the surface of the natural satellite of the Earth, the Chinese will assemble in its orbit a kind of temporary orbital station. To do this, two rockets will be sent from the Earth to the Moon’s orbit – one will fly the lunar lander, the other will carry the mission crew. Such a plan is intended to simplify the shipment of a large amount of equipment – according to Western mass mediaChina has problems in the development and creation of a single launch vehicle capable of immediately lifting a large load.

In orbit of the Moon, the taikonauts will assemble a temporary orbital complex from the modules and descend to the surface of the Moon on a lander.

There they “will conduct the necessary research and collect samples”, after which they will rise back into the orbit of the Moon, transfer to the ship that brought them from Earth, and return to Earth in it. How many taikonauts will take part in the mission and how many of them will land on the moon, and how many will wait for them in lunar orbit, has not yet been reported.

During the presentation of the plan in Wuhan, CMSA Deputy Chief Engineer Zhan Hailiang said that in order to implement the lunar mission in China, active work is now underway on the new Long March 10 launch vehicle (Long March 10), a lander, special suits for staying on the Moon, a manned lunar rover and other equipment. The new launch vehicle will be equipped with three and a half stages and will be able to carry up to 27 tons of payload to lunar orbit.

If the mission is successful, China will become the second nation in human history to have successfully landed a man on the moon. In 1969 the USA did it. A new, larger US mission to land men on the moon is planned for 2025. As part of the missionArtemis» NASA wants to build a lunar base near the South Pole of the Moon. The base will be located in the 19 km diameter Shackleton crater, on the annular shaft of which the pole point is located, and in the bottom bowl there are reserves of ice.

Evgeniy Khvostik