Roscosmos and the China National Space Administration have signed a memorandum on the construction of a power station for the International Scientific Station on the Moon. “Roscosmos and the China National Space Administration have signed a memorandum of cooperation on the creation of a lunar power station,” Roscosmos said in a statement. It is noted that the memorandum is included in the list of documents signed following the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chairman of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping on May 8, 2025.
“The Russian power plant will be an important contribution to the International Scientific Lunar Station project, which is planned to be created by 2036,” Roscosmos added.
The station will conduct fundamental space research and test technologies for long-term unmanned operation of the International Scientific Lunar Station (ISLS) with the prospect of human presence on the Moon. 13 countries have already joined the Russian-Chinese project to create a lunar station.
Earlier, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Bakanov reported that as part of the project to create the International Lunar Station, it is planned to place a power station on the surface of the Moon.
Funding for Russia’s new lunar program, which aims to build a station on the Moon, will begin in 2025. This was announced by the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Gennady Krasnikov at a general meeting of the academy.
Illustration of a hypothetical Chinese lunar base. gremlin
“As for the lunar program, it includes seven lunar missions with various scientific tasks. This is a large and very responsible program and, of course, a serious challenge for our academic institutions. Financing of this program will begin this year,” the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.
According to him, the first stage of the research is supposed to be carried out using automatic flights: it is necessary to study the poles of the Moon, where the largest accumulations of ice have been discovered, and collect soil for analysis. Then lunar rovers will be sent to the Moon to study the terrain and prepare the placement of the future lunar station.
The construction of the Chinese-Russian reactor will likely be carried out autonomously “without the presence of people,” according to a 2024 interview with Yuri Borisov, director general of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, on the Russian state-run news site TASS. While the details of how this might be achieved remain unclear, Borisov added that the technological steps are “almost ready.”
“The station will conduct fundamental space research and develop technologies for long-term unmanned operation of the ILRS with the prospect of human presence on the Moon,” Roscosmos said in a statement on May 8 after the signing of the memorandum.
The new research station, a permanent, habitable lunar base located at the moon’s south pole, has already attracted 17 countries to participate in the program, including Egypt, Pakistan, Venezuela, Thailand and South Africa. Its foundation will be laid by China’s Chang’e 8 mission in 2028, which will be the country’s first astronaut landing on the lunar surface.
The ILRS roadmap was first unveiled in June 2021, when China and Russia announced they would deliver elements of a robotic lunar base to the Moon using five super-heavy rocket launches between 2030 and 2035.
In the area of Russian-Chinese cooperation in space, work is underway in the following promising areas: cooperation in the area of the Moon and deep space, space-related electronic components, space debris, remote sensing of the Earth, as well as in the area of creating the International Scientific Lunar Station (ISLS), the press service of Roscosmos reports.
In March 2021, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on cooperation in the field of creating an International Scientific Lunar Station; in April, a presentation of the project for the creation of the International Scientific Lunar Station was held at the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the UN Committee on Outer Space; and in June, its roadmap was presented at the GLEX-2021 International Conference.
Roscosmos. Roscosmos Press Service
MNLS is a complex of experimental research facilities created on the surface and/or in orbit around the Moon with the possible involvement of other countries, international organizations and other international partners. It is designed to conduct multidisciplinary and multipurpose research work, including the exploration and use of the Moon, lunar observations, fundamental research experiments and technology testing, with the possibility of long-term unmanned operation with the prospect of ensuring human presence.
See also... New method for observing individual atoms confirms century-old quantum mechanical theory |
Work is underway to develop a legally binding intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of creating an International Scientific Lunar Station.
The Russian-Chinese Roadmap for Cooperation in Satellite Navigation for 2021-2025 was signed. The roadmap includes plans for the integrated and innovative development of the GLONASS and Beidou systems, increasing their compatibility and complementarity, and the mutual placement of ground-based measuring stations of the GLONASS and Beidou systems in China and Russia.
Work is underway to prepare for the signing of contracts for the deployment of GLONASS and Beidou stations on a parity basis in China and Russia, respectively.
See also... Complete list of HTML/Javascript event handlers with examples List of required documents for a website in the Russian Federation |
