China and Europe in negotiations to build a lunar base

China and Europe in negotiations to build a lunar base

The Governments of the United States and China could be described as frenemies in the area of outer space policy: the degree of their collaboration involves procedures such as preventing them from shooting satellite-guided weapons.

So to advance their ambitious space exploration plans, the Government of Xi Jinping is now pleased with the European Union and the ongoing talks to add China to a project led by the European Space Agency to build a human position on the moon, the Associated Press said this week.

The project, which the ESA announced last year, would build a lunar habitat capable of harboring astronauts for long periods of time, as well as serving as a starting point for future expeditions to Mars. The director of ESA, Jan Wörner, described the habitat envisaged as a multinational and permanent "lunar town" similar to the International Space Station.

"This will be the Americans, will be the Russians, will be the Chinese, will be the Indians, the Japanese and even more countries with smaller contributions," said Wörner to euronews last year.

With China on board, getting America involved could be a difficult task. The Obama administration refused to participate in the project before China signed, and at a Senate hearing on space industry on Wednesday, companies urged the Government to adopt policies that would compete with China in outer space rather than cooperate.

In other space news, NASA's Cassini spacecraft completed Wednesday the last of its various raids planned in the atmosphere of Saturn, moving to 1.900 miles of the planet's clouds. That's as close as a spacecraft has flown to Saturn, NASA said. Cassini's mission is scheduled to end this month of September with a dive on the planet itself.

• Tweet
• Share
• Share
• Share
• Share