China intends to start constructing a lunar base using moon soil in five years, according to Chinese media, with the ambitious plan set to begin this decade.
According to local media, more than 100 Chinese scientists, researchers, and space contractors recently convened in the central Chinese city of Wuhan to explore strategies to develop infrastructure on the moon.
According to Changjiang Daily, Ding Lieyun, an expert from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a team is creating a robot called “Chinese Super Masons” to manufacture bricks out of lunar soil.
“Building a habitat on the moon is required for long-term lunar explorations, and will undoubtedly be realised in the future,” Ding added, while conceding the challenge of doing so in the near term.
Ding said that the robot charged with creating the “lunar soil brick” would be launched during China’s Chang’e-8 mission around 2028, and that the government plans to recover the world’s first soil sample from the far side of the moon in a mission around 2025.
China previously obtained soil samples from the moon’s near side during its Chang’e-5 mission in 2020, according to official media.
The government has declared that once a lunar research station is established, it wants its astronauts to remain on the moon for extended periods of time.
This past weekend, Ding and scores of scientists attended the Extraterrestrial Construction Conference at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan.
