China-led lunar base to include nuclear power plant on moon’s surface, space official

Preliminary plans for the China and Russia-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) include building a nuclear reactor on the moon’s surface, a presentation by a Chinese space official on Wednesday showed.

The presentation by Pei Zhaoyu, chief engineer for China’s 2028 Chang’e-8 mission, showed that the base’s energy supply could also depend on large-scale solar arrays, which would be built on the moon’s surface.

China’s Chang’e-8 mission aims to lay the groundwork for the construction of a permanent manned lunar base. The world’s second largest economy is aiming to become a major space power and land astronauts on the moon by 2030.

China’s timeline to build an outpost on the moon’s south pole coincides with NASA’s more ambitious and advanced Artemis programme, which aims to put U.S. astronauts back on the lunar surface in December 2025.

Wu Weiren, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief designer of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Project, said last year that a “basic model” of the ILRS, with the South Pole of the Moon as its core, would be built by 2035.

The Chang’e lunar probe launches are part of the construction phase for the “basic model” outlined by Wu.

In future, China will create the “555 Project”, inviting 50 countries, 500 international scientific research institutions, and 5,000 overseas researchers to join the ILRS.