Moon Exploration: Why China and Russia are Teaming Up for a Lunar Base

Last month, Science Times reported that the Russian space agency Roscosmos and China's National Space Administration (CNSA) recently agreed on building a lunar base called International Scientific Lunar Station and a satellite to orbit around the Moon.

The International Scientific Lunar Station is said to rival NASA's Gateway program, which will build a rival space station developed by an alliance of different countries in the next decade.

This announcement is in preparation for the 60th anniversary of Yuri's Night that marked the beginning of human spaceflight on April 12, 1961.

What Could a Russian-Chinese Lunar Base Mean

Building a lunar will give many benefits to space agencies around the globe and the world as a whole. It will be the first step to test humanity's capabilities and technologies to one day colonize Mars, according to The Next Web.

Also, a lunar base would serve as a station for various scientific activities, like observing the Sun and other objects in the cosmos.

The lunar base will help scientists in researching astronomy and could assist in developing a variety of important advanced technologies and capabilities, like robotics, utilization of resources, in-space propulsion, optical communication, space additive manufacturing via 3D printing, and more.

They say that space is now the new battleground and having a lunar base means a great deal in the space race. It will help establish subsequent Mars missions and other cosmological activities.

It is a signal of a significant breakthrough in space flight, high-value extraterrestrial resources, power and communication, space habitats for the crew, and facilities that will lessen the risks on the technical and financial aspects of future space missions.

The space race is a competition between nations, particularly the US and the Soviet Union, to show superiority in spaceflight. It is like a continuation of the Cold War in the 20th century that pitted the ideologies of capitalism and communism, according to one exhibit from the National Air and Space Museum.

The crew who will live in the International Lunar Research Station would work together by developing and sharing the infrastructure but also enhancing their capabilities and talents, TNW reported.

Their scientific research would include resource mining and processing, technology development, and human exploration on the Moon that perhaps one day could open tourism.

Who Won the Space Race?

In the 20th century, both Americans and Russians achieved their first interplanetary flyby by sending spacecraft, and astronauts, and cosmonauts to space. Also, other nations have sent their rockets and satellites in the '60s and '70s.

But according to Space.com, these are all just a sideshow of the real space race at the time. With NASA's Apollo program, the space agency's engineers embarked on a series of space missions to place the first human footprints on the lunar surface.

Although there are more American and Societ missions after the successes of NASA's Apollo program, it is believed that the 20th-century space race has been won by the United States. But as the Cold War wound down, both countries agreed to cooperate in space and created the International Space Station in 1998.

In this 21st century, more countries are joining the space race that is why the joint project of Russia and China is a significant move in winning the current space race. Even private companies are also becoming a part of this monumental event in history.

Tomorrow's winner of the space race is yet to be determined with more players coming in, which is expected to have more win-lose scenarios than the past century.

Check out more news and information on Space and Moon on Science Times.