China and Russia have reached an agreement on the construction of a nuclear power plant on the Moon.
A contract for cooperation in the ink of China and Russia says the Russian reactor will run the International Moon Research Station (ILRS), which is jointly led by China and Russia and is expected to be completed by 2036, reported Space.com.
The news was made shortly after NASA revealed a budget proposal for 2026 that would eliminate the agency’s Orbital Lunar Outpost plans.
According to an interview from 2024 with Yury Borisov, Director -General of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, at the Russian state -owned news site TassThe construction of the Chinese-Russian reactor is likely to be ended autonomously “without the presence of people.” While it is still unclear exactly how this can be achieved, Borisov declared that the technology rails are “almost clear.”
“The station will perform basic space research and testing technology for long -term unpublished operations by ILRS, with the prospect of a human presence on the moon,” Roscosmos said in a message released on May 8 after the memorandum was signed.
Egypt, Pakistan, Venezuela, Thailand and South Africa are among the 17 nations that have so far joined the initiative. The new research station is a permanent, manned lunar colony located on the Moon’s south pole. China’s Mission of 2028 Chang’e-8, the country’s first to land a man on the moon, will lay the basis for it.
China and Russia said in June 2021 that they will use five Super Heavy-Lift Rocket launches between 2030 and 2035 to ceiling the components of a robot moon base as part of the ILRS program.
