China and Russia have entered into an agreement for the construction of a nuclear power plant on the moon.
A cooperation contract signed by China and Russia declares that the Russian reactor will feed the Lunar International research station (ILRS), which is jointly led by China and Russia and should be completed by 2036, reported Space.com.
The news was made shortly after NASA unveiled a budget proposal for 2026 which would eliminate plans from the agency’s orbital lunar preposte.
According to an interview in 2024 with Yury Borisov, Managing Director of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, on the Russian information site CupThe construction of the Chinese-Russian reactor will probably be finished independently “without the presence of humans”. Although it is not yet clear exactly how it can be accomplished, Borisov said that the stages of technology are “almost ready”.
“The station will conduct a basic research on the space and technology of tests for the long -term operations of ILR, with the prospect of the presence of a human being on the moon,” said Roscosmos in a notice published on May 8 after the signing of the memorandum.
Egypt, Pakistan, Venezuela, Thailand and South Africa are among the 17 nations that have joined the initiative so far. The new research station is a permanent lunar colony located on the southern pole of the moon. The China mission in 2028 Chang’e-8, the first in the country to win a man on the moon, will lay the foundations.
China and Russia said in June 2021 that they would use five super heavy rocket launches between 2030 and 2035 for loft components for a robotic moon base as part of the ILRS program.
