Space
China, Russia sign agreement to build space station on the moon, the “high ground” above planet Earth
(Planet-Today) Russia and China’s space agencies have signed an agreement to built a joint lunar space station. According to a statement released by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Tuesday, March 9, the new space station would be “open to all countries and international partners.”
(Article by Franz Walker republished from NaturalNews.com)
“China and Russia will use their accumulated experience in space science, research and development as well as the use of space equipment and space technology to jointly develop a road map for the construction of an international lunar scientific research station (ILRS),” the CNSA said.
Meanwhile, a statement from Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos) said that the two agencies planned to “promote cooperation on the creation of an open-access ILRS for all interested countries and international partners, with the goal of strengthening research cooperation and promoting the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes in the interests of all mankind.”
In addition, the two countries have also signed agreements to jointly set up a data center for the exploration of the moon and deep space. They also plan to cooperate in the future on China’s Chang’e-7 and Russia’s Luna 27 missions, both of which aim to survey the lunar south pole.
Moonbase to allow for wide range of research
According to Roscosmos, the lunar space station will be “a complex of experimental and research facilities” created either on the moon’s surface or in orbit around the moon. The facilities will be designed to allow for a wide range of multidisciplinary research. These include “testing technologies with the possibility of long-term unmanned operation with the prospect of human presence on the moon.”
As part of their agreement, Roscosmos says that the two countries will work on a roadmap on how to design, develop and operate the station and plan its “presentation to the world space community.”
Russia was a founding partner of the International Space Station (ISS), alongside the U.S. and other nations. The ISS, which marked its 20th anniversary of continuous operation in November of 2020, remains mankind’s only operational and permanently inhabited space station to date.
While Russia was a pioneer in space exploration, beating the U.S. to several milestones back in the 1960s, the country has struggled to replicate its early success in recent years. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia’s space program has experienced a string of setbacks and budget cuts. More recently, it suffered another blow after it lost its monopoly for manned space flights to the ISS following the first successful mission of U.S. company SpaceX.
Unlike Russia, China is not involved in ISS initiatives, owing in part due to U.S. federal legislation barring cooperation with Beijing on space projects. More importantly, the country entered the space race much later than the U.S. and Russia.
But China has been quickly playing catch up with its space program thanks to billions of dollars in government investment.
China quickly catching up to the US in space
In 2019, China became the first country to send an unmanned rover to the far side of the moon. Then in July of 2020, it launched its Tianwen-1 probe that’s currently orbiting Mars. Meanwhile, in December, another Chinese probe successfully brought moonrock samples back to Earth in a mission that was the first of its type in over four decades. This made it only the third country to successfully do so.
Now, China is planning to send astronauts to the moon by the 2030s. Should this pan out, it would make China only the second country to do so after the U.S.
The deal with Russia then could be seen as a demonstration of China’s confidence in achieving this goal. It could also be seen as a way to fast-track its lunar ambitions in the wake of the U.S.’s plans for its own moon base.
In September of 2020, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Space Force signed an agreement that committed both towards building an American military base on the moon. The base, dubbed Artemis, would be located near the lunar south pole – near where China and Russia are set to launch survey missions.
With the moves by all three parties, it seems that building a lunar base is the next big milestone in the ongoing space race.
Follow Space.news for more on future manned missions to the Moon.
Sources include:
Recently, a group of experts from Harvard University, led by physics
professor Avi Loeb, announced the possible presence of alien space
debris in Earth’s orbit, reports the Daily Star.
Leading
space research expert Professor Loeb is confident that the discovery of
such “interstellar objects could help expand our knowledge of possible
alien civilizations and technologies. A team of scientists is conducting
research to confirm that some of the objects in our orbit may be
connected to other star systems.
During an interview with Live
Science, Professor Loeb explained that these objects could enter the
solar system from interstellar space, defying Jupiter’s gravitational
pull and occupying limited orbits around the sun.
Some of them may
have technological origins similar to the probes sent by mankind into
interstellar space, such as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, Pioneer 10 and 11
and New Horizons.
However,
despite these interesting assumptions, Professor Loeb did not specify
what specific objects he was talking about. In his research report, he
notes that there could be “a significant number” of potentially
detectable objects in Earth’s orbit.
To confirm their assumptions,
the team of scientists uses computer simulations and the Vera Rubin
Observatory (Chile) with a high-resolution camera of 3.2 billion pixels.
This will allow for regular observations of the Southern sky and the
possibility of detecting several captured objects about the size of a
football field.
It is assumed that these interstellar objects passed through the
boundaries of the solar system and may carry unique information about
other civilizations and their technologies. If we could confirm the
origin of these objects, the mysteries that open before us, this would
be a real breakthrough in space exploration.
Professor Loeb
expresses hope that the new research will not only help expand our
knowledge of extraterrestrial technologies, but may also lead to the
discovery of new alien civilizations . Answers to such questions can be
of global significance and influence our understanding of the place of
mankind in the Universe.
And
while there are still many questions and assumptions, the study by
Professor Loeb and his team opens a new chapter in space exploration.
Each new discovery can be the key to deciphering the mysteries of the
cosmos and the possibility of encountering alien life forms.
Betelgeuse, a red giant on the brink of death, continues to show
unusual behavior. After the Great Blackout, which occurred in late 2019
and early 2020, the star became unusually bright. It is now the seventh
brightest star in the sky, while it normally ranks tenth. This has led
to speculation that Betelgeuse is preparing to explode in a
spectacularly large supernova.
However, scientists believe it’s too early to tell, and it’s likely
that this behavior is due to ongoing fluctuations after the Great
Blackout of 2019, and the star will return to normal within a decade.
Betelgeuse is one of the most interesting stars in the sky. It is
about 700 light-years from Earth and is a red giant in the last stage of
its life. It is also an unusual star for a red giant because it was
previously a monster blue-white O-type star, the most massive class of
stars.
Betelgeuse has changed its spectral type because it has almost
exhausted its hydrogen reserves. It now burns helium into carbon and
oxygen and has expanded to a gigantic size: about 764 times the size of
the Sun and about 16.5 to 19 times its mass.
Eventually it will run out of fuel to burn, become a supernova, eject
its outer material, and its core will collapse into a neutron star.
Before the Great Blackout, Betelgeuse also had periodic fluctuations
in brightness. The longest of these cycles is about 5.9 years and the
other is 400 days. But it seems that the Great Blackout caused changes
in these oscillations.
A new paper by astrophysicist Morgan McLeod of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has shown that the 400-day
cycle appears to have been halved. This pulsational cycle is probably
caused by expansion and contraction within the star. According to
simulations carried out by MacLeod and his colleagues, the convective
flow inside Betelgeuse may have risen and become material that separates
from the star.
-
Ghosts10 months agoZozo: The Ouija Board Demon
-
Space8 months agoScientists claim to have found the answer what existed before the Universe
-
Ghosts10 months agoJumbee: Demons of the Caribbean
-
General10 months agoThe War for the Planet Between Humans and Neanderthals Lasted 100,000 Years
-
General9 months agoWhere did ships from the Middle Ages come from in the US deserts?