China Wants to Involve 50 Countries in Lunar Station Development Program

Illustration of the space station on the Moon (photo: dock. CNSA)

JAKARTA – China wants to cooperate with dozens of countries in building the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) program. Until now, China is still open to partnering with any country.

"We are open and welcome international cooperation from all countries, including countries from the southern hemisphere, developing BRICS countries, and countries from the West," Wu Wieren, Head of China's Lunar Exploration Program, told China Global Television Network.

So far, China has only made agreements with 11 countries and nearly 30 research institutions. The hope is that the number of partnering countries and research institutions will increase fivefold when the lunar station base begins to be built.

"We hope to cooperate with 50 countries by inviting 500 foreign scientific research institutions and 5,000 foreign scientific research personnel to jointly build our international lunar scientific research station," Wu explained.

The eleven countries that have collaborated with China are Venezuela, Belarus, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, South Africa, Egypt, Nicaragua, Thailand, Serbia, and Kazakhstan. Turkey may become the twelfth country because they have submitted a request for cooperation.

The ILRS program was first announced by China and Russia in 2021. Support for this program has been slow due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. To accelerate the ILRS program, China is leading its mission diplomatically.

In terms of the amount of support from its countries, this program lags far behind the Artemis mission initiated by NASA. Although the goals of these two missions are different, China and the US want to build important history on the Moon and conduct scientific research there.

With the establishment of a permanent lunar base, China wants to provide electricity, communications, and various other infrastructure at the base. Later, this research station can be used as a research site for astronauts and explorer robots.