NASA started the Artemis program in December 2022 so that the human being returns to the Moonafter five decades, thanks to the Artemis III mission. Although this space agency continues to improve Orion’s heat shield and continues to award contracts to its international partners to develop landing systemsthere is a country that wants to reach the Moon in 2030.
Specifically, China aims to reach Earth’s satellite in six yearsIn addition, its mission is so clear that, recently, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has published a video in which it details its plans for the first manned mission to the Moon.
As can be seen in the video, the CMSA shows planned activity animationshardware tests, astronauts operating and driving along planned routes, hot-fire tests of the Long March 10 rockets, parachute deployments, a lunar rover, the Mengzhou manned spacecraft and the lunar extravehicular suits that astronauts will useamong other representations.
China wants to win the space race against NASA
China aims to land on the Moon by 2030. This space mission maintains the mission of achieving crucial advances, such as allowing manned trips between the Earth and the Moon, inhabiting the lunar surface in the short term and carrying out joint explorations between humans and robots. Additionally, objectives include lunar landing, surface mobility, sample collectionscientific research and a safe return to Earth.
Until now, China continues to advance in the space racetaking into account that they are testing prototypes of mission-critical equipment on the ground—including the Long March-10 rocket, the Mengzhou spacecraft, the Lanyue lander, astronaut space suits, and the lunar rover.
These are the rockets with which China will reach the Moon
The CMSA has already announced the two ships with which Chinese explorers will travel to our natural satellite in 2030. The names of the ships that the CMSA will use for its lunar objectives are:
- He Mengzhou orbiterwhich means ‘dream ship’ and refers to the Chinese dream of reaching the Moon.
- He Lanyue lunar landing modulewhich means ’embrace the Moon’ and appears in a poem by Mao Zedong, first president of the People’s Republic of China and founder of the Communist Party of China, the only one in the country.
With Mengzhou, China aims to transport up to three astronauts from Earth to lunar orbit. But Lanyue will be the ship that sends two of them to the surface of the Moon. Afterwards, they will return to Megzhou to return home.