Maxine Harrison
China has said it plans to get a nuclear reactor up and running on the Moon by 2035.
It's been more than 50 years since humans last set foot on the Moon, but now plans have been set in motion to set up a permanent base there fuelled by nuclear power.
China has shared its ambition to build a nuclear plant on the Moon in collaboration with Russia. A presentation by a senior representative revealed on April 23 outlined that China’s plan to build a nuclear plant on the Moon is with the aim of powering the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) it is planning with Russia.
This highlights the major plan China has to become a giant space power and land astronauts on the Moon in just five years' time, by 2030.
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If the plans go ahead, it will mean that it will be the first time a Chinese astronaut has set foot on the Moon. It aims to have the ILRS ready by 2035.
This week, Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program, said: "An important question for the ILRS is power supply’. In this, Russia has a natural advantage, when it comes to nuclear power plants, especially sending them into space, it leads the world, it is ahead of the United States."
But China isn’t the only one that has out-of-this-world plans. Although the US has sent astronauts to land on the Moon before, it hasn’t since seen a Moon mission since 1972.
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But now, the US plans to land two astronauts on the surface of the Moon in 2027. They then propose a base to follow later.
However, although China hasn’t directly landed an astronaut on the Moon, it does have a history in space. For example, China’s Shenzhou 5 mission in 2003 made it only the third country to launch a crew into space.
Ten years later, it landed the Chang’e 3 robotic rover on the Moon. If China’s plan is successful, it could open up a whole new world for what it means for space travel.
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Former head of Russia’s Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said his country was working on a 'space tugboat' last year, explaining: "This huge, cyclopean structure would be able, thanks to a nuclear reactor and high-power turbines, to transport large cargos from one orbit to another, collect space debris and engage in many other applications."
A contribution as to why competing to land on the Moon is partly due to the natural resources available up there that could be exploited, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich.
It’s thought that the Moon has natural resources such as metal oxides, silicon, titanium, etc.