Joint talks over human outpost on the moon
REPRESENTATIVES of China and the European Space Agency are discussing potential collaboration on a human outpost on the moon and other joint endeavors, according to a spokesman for the European agency and media reports.
The secretary general for China’s space agency, Tian Yulong, first disclosed the talks about the envisioned lunar base in Chinese media.
They were confirmed yesterday by Pal Hvistendahl, a spokesman for the European Space Agency, or ESA.
“The Chinese have a very ambitious moon program already in place,” Hvistendahl said. “Space has changed since the space race of the ’60s. We recognize that to explore space for peaceful purposes, we do international cooperation.”
The director general of the 22-member ESA, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, has described its proposed “Moon Village” as a potential international launching pad for future missions to Mars and a chance to develop space tourism or even lunar mining.
China arrived relatively late to space travel but has ramped up its program since its first manned spaceflight in 2003, more than 42 years after a Soviet cosmonaut became the first to reach orbit.
Last week, the China National Space Administration launched an unmanned spacecraft on a mission to dock with its currently unoccupied space station.
It plans to launch a mission to collect samples from the moon by the end of this year and next year conduct the first mission to the moon’s far side and bring back mineral samples.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
- RSS
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证:沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证:31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证:0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证:沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证:沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.