China Has Announced Plans For Three Lunar Missions

Sep, 2022 - By WMR

As part of its Chang'e lunar programme, China plans to send three spacecraft to the moon during the following ten years, after finding a new lunar material that might serve as a source of energy in the future.

After discovering a brand-new mineral, China's National Space Administration received authorisation for the missions. Lunar samples contained the mineral known as Changesite-(Y), which may one day serve as a source of energy. Following the discovery of a new lunar material that may one day serve as an energy source, China is planning to send three unmanned trips to the moon.

After Beijing's National Space Administration received approval to send three orbiters to the moon over the next ten years, it said on Saturday, the race for space between China and the US has picked up speed. Bloomberg was the first to break the story. It comes a day after China, according to the Chinese state-run daily the Global Times, became the third nation to find a new lunar mineral that it named Changesite-(Y).

In 2020, China's Chang'e-5 mission brought back samples from the moon, and according to Global Times, it was a phosphate mineral of crystal discovered in lunar rock fragments. Helium-3, which the mineral contains and may one day serve as a source of energy. The finding might increase pressure on the US to step up efforts after the second delay of the Artemis I moon mission.

As NASA investigates the moon's south pole, where China and Russia intend to construct a research facility, moon mining may become the next point of contention between the nations. By constructing a space station, conducting several missions to gather moon samples, and sending a rover dubbed Zhurong to Mars early this year to compete with NASA, China has increased its space research activities recently.