China wants to start using lunar soil to build moon bases this decade By Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) – China wants to start building a lunar base using the moon’s soil in five years, Chinese media reported, with an ambitious plan launched as early as this decade.

More than 100 Chinese space scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs recently gathered at a conference in China’s central city of Wuhan to discuss ways to build infrastructure on the moon, local media reported.

Ding Lieyun, an expert from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said a team is designing a robot called “Chinese Super Masons” to make bricks from lunar soil, according to the Changjiang Daily.

“The construction of a habitat on the Moon is necessary for long-term lunar explorations, and will certainly be carried out in the future,” Ding said, while acknowledging the difficulty of achieving this in the short term, according to the report. .

The robot responsible for making the “lunar soil brick” will be launched on China’s Chang’e-8 mission around 2028, Ding said, adding that the country aims to retrieve the world’s first soil sample from the other side. of the moon in a mission around 2025.

China previously recovered soil samples from the near side of the moon with its Chang’e-5 mission in 2020, state media reported.

The country has said it wants its astronauts to stay on the moon for long periods once it establishes a lunar research station.

Ding and dozens of experts were attending the alien construction conference held at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan last weekend.