© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A full moon is seen over Mexico City, Mexico, April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Romero/File Photo
BEIJING (Reuters) – China wants to start building a lunar base using lunar soil within five years, Chinese media reported, with the ambitious plan starting within this decade.
More than 100 Chinese space scientists, researchers and contractors recently gathered at a conference in the central Chinese city of Wuhan to discuss ways to build infrastructure on the moon, local media reported.
Ding Lieyun, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said a team is designing a robot called “Chinese Supermasons” to make bricks from lunar soil, according to the Changjiang Daily.
“Construction of a habitat on the moon is necessary for long-term lunar explorations, and it will certainly be done in the future,” Ding said, while acknowledging the difficulty of achieving it in the short term, according to the report.
The robot tasked with making the “moon soil brick” will be launched during 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. from the moon on 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 stated that it wants its astronauts to stay on the moon for long periods once it establishes a lunar research station.
Ding and dozens of experts attended the Alien Construction Conference held at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan last weekend.