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Details of the Chinese lunar base have been exposed, Musk's PPT, China may achieve it first
Recently, Chinese female astronaut Wang Yaping revealed a major news: China will build a manned lunar base by 2035, and it has already been advancing with implementation.
Details of the Chinese Lunar Base Exposed!
The official name of this base is "Lunar Basic Research Station," mainly solving the problem of "people can live there." It not only has basic energy and communication, but also a life support system to ensure people can live normally inside. Normally, robots do the work, doing maintenance and research, while astronauts go up periodically for rotation and care of the base.
Until 2045, when the expanded research station is built, it will be able to support 10 people living on the Moon for half a year. This means that China's lunar base is not far from realization.
Many People Have a Question: Why Must Humans Go?
When a probe flies around, lands, digs soil, and brings samples back, it's like we use a telescope to look at something—it can give a general idea, but to truly understand it, even to use it, humans must be present. The judgment and operations made by humans on-site cannot be replaced by machines. Astronauts can identify the most valuable rocks to study, adjust sampling methods temporarily, and even operate complex instruments on the spot. Only by personally visiting the Moon can we figure out how to develop it in the future.
According to our plan, the Chinese lunar base will be located at the Moon's south pole, which has an advantage: abundant sunlight, with some areas having a light coverage rate of over 80%, allowing solar panels to work continuously.
More importantly, there is a place called the Aitken Basin at the South Pole, where some permanently shadowed regions may contain large amounts of water ice. Water is too critical—once extracted, it can be drunk, decomposed into oxygen and hydrogen for breathing, or even used as rocket fuel.
Does Musk Have a Similar Plan?
Interestingly, Musk also said he wants to build a self-growing city on the Moon by 2035. Instead of transporting building materials from Earth, he plans to send robots and 3D printers to dig moon soil, burn it into bricks, lay roads, and build houses, using local resources to continuously expand itself. Starting from a small outpost, it could gradually grow into a self-sufficient, even resource-exporting large city.
This means that we are now competing with Musk in the same arena. However, Musk's PPT seems to have some suspicion of copying China's plan.
To build houses on the Moon, China has already developed the "lunar soil in-situ 3D printing" technology. You can imagine it as a "lunar soil brick machine" powered by solar energy. It uses a special focusing device to concentrate sunlight, generating temperatures of thousands of degrees, directly melting the soft lunar soil, then using 3D printing to turn the molten soil into high-strength bricks.
Scientists even thought of using the ancient Chinese mortise and tenon structure to assemble these bricks, without glue or nails, to build a house.
In short, he almost just followed our plan and made some adjustments.
The Chinese Lunar Base Is Always Prepared
Not only that, we not only have detailed development strategies and technical planning, but have also started various verifications and pushed the technology into practical application!
To find out whether there is water ice at the Moon's south pole, Chang'e 7 has been arranged, planned to be launched in the second half of 2026. It carries a "leap vehicle" that can jump into those deep craters to search for water. If successful, China will be the first country in the world to find evidence of water ice on the lunar surface.
Once confirmed that there is water ice at the Moon's south pole, all our lunar plans will revolve around building a lunar base.
Wang Yaping also mentioned a very practical matter: we are already applying for a "Extraterrestrial Survival Ground-based Research Facility."
This thing essentially replicates a lunar environment on Earth, going through the entire process of how people can survive long-term in such an environment, conducting experiments on Earth so that it will be smoother when we go there.
The benefit of doing this is to reduce unexpected occurrences. The Moon is too harsh, with strong radiation, microgravity, and fine lunar dust like flour, with temperature differences reaching hundreds of degrees. Any one of these problems could be deadly.
Our previous equipment could only simulate a single condition, such as low temperature or low pressure, but this is far from the real situation. After all, when our astronauts go to the Moon, these problems exist simultaneously.
Therefore, this new facility needs to simulate all factors comprehensively. It needs to verify whether the life support system can work without problems for several years, test whether astronauts' psychology will have problems after staying in a small space for a long time, and repeatedly practice how to build houses with lunar soil, extract water, oxygen, and fuel from ice chips.
This step is actually the most important. Only by exposing and thoroughly solving these issues on Earth can we have the confidence to really go to the Moon and build a home.
Who Can Build a Lunar Base First, China or the United States?
Looking back at the U.S. side, Musk is somewhat more reliable, but what about his actual preparations? Where is the 3D printing technology? Where are the robots? Who will take on the construction tasks? How to fire the lunar soil bricks, extract water, oxygen, and fuel, and more importantly, how to establish a life support system that allows people to live long-term on the Moon? There is no answer.
Although Musk constantly talks about big dreams, he has never put forward any specific, peer-reviewed scientific plan or engineering scheme.
So in this competition, I believe that our steady and solid approach will be the ultimate winner.
What Is the Strategic Value of the Lunar Base?
Once China builds the lunar base, its strategic value will be huge. This research station will become the first point for resource development and transfer beyond Earth. Water ice extracted can refuel spacecraft in space; most importantly, there is a substance called helium-3 on the Moon. If it can be commercialized, it might completely change the global energy pattern.
We can calculate a number: 100 tons of helium-3 can generate electricity enough for the entire Earth's population for a whole year. Moreover, this substance's fusion process is clean, controllable, and poses little risk of radiation. Once brought back, it might solve the two major problems of energy shortage and environmental pollution. Additionally, it can provide key materials for cutting-edge technologies like superconductivity and quantum computing.
As resource development becomes increasingly realistic, the chief engineer of the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, Shi Pingyan, said that the concept of a "deep space economy" is moving from theory to reality. According to authoritative institutions, by 2040, the global deep space economy could exceed $10 trillion, with the lunar-related portion alone reaching $170 billion, and resource development accounting for $63 billion.
It can be said that this base will be the main engine for cultivating new productive forces in the future.
From a broader perspective, building a lunar research station is actually about securing a ticket and supply point for human interstellar exploration. Whoever masters the technology to live long-term on another planet will gain a significant advantage in future space competitions.
The location of the Moon is particularly good, as it requires less fuel and lower difficulty to reach Mars from there. It is the first bridgehead for human civilization to move toward the solar system. According to the plan, once the research station is more complete, we will also build a Queqiao communication, navigation, and remote sensing integrated constellation, specifically supporting crewed lunar landings and Mars and Venus exploration, laying a solid foundation for humans to go further in the future.
Original: toutiao.com/article/7616257937668899366/
Declaration: This article represents the views of the author.