The United States and China are leading a space race for the moon. What you need to know

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has announced a new space race between the United States and China. The main confrontation is focused on the exploration of the moon. Both countries plan to land people on the surface and build their own permanent bases. The Chinese program is behind schedule from the American one, but at the same time, Beijing has conducted a more thorough exploration of the Earth satellite and has every chance of catching up with competitors. How the race is going and why it is necessary to explore the Moon now — in the material of Izvestia.

Why explore the Moon

• Nowadays, space exploration has returned to the nature of the space race, as it was during the Cold War, when the United States and the USSR fought for leadership and alternately achieved new achievements that pushed humanity towards progress. Now the United States and China are engaged in a similar rivalry in a variety of areas, the main of which is the exploration of the Moon.

• If in the 1970s flights to the Earth's satellite pursued mainly symbolic and scientific goals, then the current round of the space race will be much more important. Both the United States and China are striving to create a permanent lunar base where people can live for a long time, and not just as part of short-term missions.

• Permanent human presence on the moon is necessary for the development of its resources. First of all, the deposits of lunar ice at the south pole of the satellite are of interest. This part of the moon contains many craters that are blocked from sunlight. This allows them to accumulate ice and deposits of solid carbon dioxide over millions of years. At the same time, the outer walls of some South Pole craters are always illuminated by the Sun and do not fall into the zone of a two-week lunar night. This provides access to a permanent source of solar energy.

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• Water on the moon is necessary not only to quench thirst. Its decomposition into hydrogen and oxygen makes it possible to obtain breathing air and rocket fuel for space flights. It is much more convenient to launch space rockets from the Moon, as it has less gravity than the Earth. At the same time, it is closer to Mars and to other space bodies to which spacecraft are required to be delivered.

• Other valuable resources of the Moon also include deposits of rare earth metals and the isotope helium-3. The latter may be useful as a fuel for thermonuclear fusion, an as yet untapped type of energy more powerful than nuclear. But mining them on the Moon currently makes no economic sense due to the lack of technology and low profitability. Lunar ice remains the main object targeted by the programs of the leading space powers.

What is the United States trying to achieve

• The United States already has a definite base in the exploration of the moon. From 1969 to 1972, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) carried out six astronaut landings on the surface of the Earth's satellite. In each case, the landing took place in the equatorial zone of the Moon, about 4 thousand km from the south pole. It is easier and safer to land in this zone, you can use the rotation of the Moon to lift off from the surface and radio communication with the Earth is not lost.

• NASA is now implementing a more complex Artemis program, which aims to return to the moon and establish a permanent base at the south Pole. At the moment, two missions have taken place. As part of the first one, which took place in 2022, an unmanned test flight of the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft took place. They flew around the moon and returned safely to Earth. The second mission took place in April 2026. The four-man crew completed a 10-day flyby around the moon to test the life support systems on board.

• The third Artemis mission was originally supposed to land humans on the moon, but these plans have been adjusted. In 2027, another test flight involving four astronauts is scheduled to take place, during which the Orion spacecraft with private modules from SpaceX and Blue Origin will be tested in low-Earth orbit. The success of this mission, according to NASA, will make it possible to deliver two astronauts to the south pole of the Moon in early 2028. They will have to spend a week there doing scientific research.

• NASA has also identified the main stages for the creation of a lunar base. The first one, scheduled until 2029, will host 25 support missions, which will deliver the necessary infrastructure to the lunar surface. The first of them will be held this fall. Blue Origin will have to deliver scientific equipment and test a soft landing at the south Pole.

• The second stage from 2029 to 2032 will be devoted to the direct construction of the base. The moon will have residential modules, communication systems, energy sources and reliable transportation to travel on the surface. A total of 60 tons of cargo will need to be delivered. Starting in 2032, NASA plans to begin providing a permanent human presence on the Moon with a rotation of astronauts. It is expected that the lunar base will be similar in scale and capabilities to the International Space Station.

How does China respond

• China has been conducting its Chang'e lunar program (like Artemis, it is named after the goddess of the Moon) since the beginning of the 21st century. The first mission took place back in 2007, and by now the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) has managed to carry out six successful launches in one way or another related to the development of the Earth's satellite. All of them were held in unmanned mode with the active use of robotic technology.

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Chang'e has achieved certain achievements in a number of areas. As part of the fourth mission, Chinese scientists were the first in the world to carry out a soft landing of a lunar rover on the far side of the Moon in January 2019. The next stage of the program included the launch of an automatic interplanetary station, which was the first to deliver lunar soil to Earth in almost half a century. Chang'e-6 went even further and delivered almost 2 kg of lunar matter from the reverse side, which no other country has done yet.

• China's next mission is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2026. Its purpose will be the exploration of the South Pole and the development of technologies for the further construction of the International Scientific Lunar Station (ISS). As part of the mission, it is planned to deliver a bouncing lunar rover to explore hard-to-reach craters. The eighth flight to the moon involves further development of construction technologies and delivery of equipment.

• China is still making cautious forecasts regarding manned missions. It is planned to land people on the surface of the satellite by 2030. The necessary components for the mission, such as the Long March-10 superheavy launch vehicle, the Mengzhou spacecraft and the Lanyue lander, are still under development. An orbital flight has been set as an interim goal, which is scheduled to take place by 2028.

• Full-fledged construction of the MNLS should begin after the first landing of Chinese cosmonauts. The CNSA plan assumes that the basic infrastructure of the station will be built up to 2035, and the necessary equipment will be delivered as part of five missions. After the completion of the basic model, the station will be expanded with new scientific modules and permanent transport infrastructure.