Russia and China have decided to team up and agreed on Mar. 9 to create a lunar space station that will be open to all countries. The lunar space station will be created on the moon’s surface and/or in orbit of the moon. The lunar space station will be built out of complex research and experimental facilities that will be used for research on self-operating technologies. 

“China and Russia will use their accumulated experience in space science, research and development… to jointly develop a road map for the construction of an international lunar scientific research station (ILRS),” China’s National Space Administration said.

The two space stations have announced an agreement to develop the International Lunar Research Station, also known as the ILRS. The two countries have also planned to create a data center for the exploration of space as a whole together. They plan on cooperating in the future on their space projects such as China’s Chang’e-7 and Russia’s Luna 27 missions. 

“We plan to promote cooperation on the creation of an open-access ILRS… with the goal of strengthening research cooperation and promoting the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes in the interests of all mankind,” Roscosmos, Russian Space Agency said.

In recent years, Russia has been struggling with space exploration and projects, such as multiple probe launch failures. China also became the first country to send an unmanned probe to the moon and sent their first satellites in 1970. 

If the lunar space station succeeds, it has the potential to find ways to commercially exploit the moon and change the geopolitics of space exploration itself. In recent years, China has made big advances in terms of space exploration and sent many astronauts and probes into space from the moon to Mars. 

“China has created an ideological narrative about its lunar base that offers its advanced space capacity as an asset to those who want to join in an alternative mechanism of lunar exploration and exploitation of resources,” Namrata Goswami, an independent analyst, said. 

In conclusion, China and Russia cooperating shows the world’s potential when we put our minds to a goal we all want to achieve. It also can reveal space’s greatest mysteries and many possibilities beneath it. Hopefully, in the near future, the lunar space station will be built to further space research and exploration. 

Photo courtesy of SPACE.COM