China to send a man and a robot to the moon, trying to get ahead of NASA in the space race

China intends to land its astronauts on the surface of the Moon by 2030. Although this is technically a little later than NASA's "by the end of 2025," it is beginning to look a lot like a new space race.

According to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, the Celestial Empire has several projects concerning the moon. According to Phys, one of them involves sending a man and a robot to the satellite.

According to Xiqiang, China's first goal is a short-term visit to the moon, to be carried out by a human and a robot. When exactly this mission to the satellite will take place is not known; the Chinese official said only that it will take place before 2030.

He also stressed that China already has a ready infrastructure, which will help to carry out such a flight, as well as "a system of transportation of people in both directions.

This includes the Tiangong space station, whose third section was added in November 2022.

China also unveiled a new crew that will travel to the space station on May 30. They believe that the planned two manned space flights per year are quite satisfactory for the plans to prepare for the moon mission, so the Celestial Empire's space program does not need any special updates.

In the near future, Chinese astronauts intend to increase the Tiangong space station, equipping it with a fourth module added to expand the program of scientific experiments, as well as provide better working and living conditions for the crew.

For the first time, a civilian was included in the crew that would go to the station. All previous Chinese astronauts were members of the People's Liberation Army, the military wing of the ruling Communist Party. An exception was made for Guy Haichao, a professor at Beijing's leading aerospace research institute, who serves as a payload expert.

Flight commander Jing Haipeng said their mission marked a "new stage in the application and development" of China's space program.

In 2003, China became the third country after the Soviet Union and the United States to send a man into space.

China built its own Tiangong space station after astronauts from the Celestial Empire were excluded from the International Space Station. In particular, because the U.S. denied the possibility of military participation in space projects.

Space is now becoming a new field for confrontation between the United States and China, the countries with the most powerful economies in the world. NASA earlier announced its intention to send astronauts to the Moon by the end of 2025. It is not yet known whether this date will be shifted, but few space programs of recent decades have fit into the announced time frame. U.S. astronauts intend to land on the moon's south pole, where craters are expected to be filled with frozen water.

Both countries also have plans for permanent lunar bases.

The U.S. sent six crews to the moon between 1969 and 1972, three of which involved a guided lunar rover, which China says it is also currently developing.

Earlier OBOZREVATEL also reported that Chinese scientists discovered a new crystal in the lunar soil.

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