Russia and China have signed an agreement for the construction of a nuclear power plant. The Russian reactor will be used to feed the International Monthly Research Station (ILRS), driven by the two countries.
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The announcement comes shortly after NASA has revealed a budget proposal for 2026 that would eliminate the Agency’s plans to build a monthly orbital base, writes Live Science.
The reactor will probably be done autonomously, “without the presence of the people”, according to an interview given in 2024 by Yury Borisov, the general director of the Russian Roscosm space agency.
“The station will carry out fundamental space research and test the technology for long -term operations without ILRS crew with the perspective of human presence per month“Roscosmos wrote in an announcement on May 8, after signing the memorandum.
The new research station, a permanent monthly base, with human crew, located at the South Pole of the Moon, has so far attracted 17 countries to join the program, including Egypt, Pakistan, Venezuela, Thailand and South Africa. His bases will be laid by the Chinese mission Chang’E-8 of 2028, which will be the first in which a Chinese astronaut will reach the surface of the Moon.
China also plans launches that will expand the base, connecting it to a space station that orbits the Moon and two nodes located at the Moon Equator and on its distant side, said Wu Yanhua, the chief designer of the deep exploration project, at a press conference in 2024.
This extended model, which lays the bases for missions with human crew on Mars, should be completed by 2050. It will “be powered by solar, radioisotopic and nuclear generators,” said Wu.
The memorandum comes in a moment of increasing ambition for China’s space programs. The country has a monthly presence since the landing of the Chang’E 3 mission in 2013, which placed a rover per month. Subsequent missions have put several rovers a month and Mars, collecting evidence on the visible and hidden face of the Moon and mapping the monthly surface.
China’s race for the construction of a monthly outpost also has an American rival in the Artemis program, which was recently affected by delays. Artemis III, which will mark the return of astronauts NASA NASA the natural satellite of the Earth for the first time in over 50 years, is provided to be launched somewhere in 2027.
Meanwhile, the future of the monthly space station planned by NASA, called Gateway and initially scheduled for launch in 2027, was questioned with the publication of the budget proposed by the Trump Administration for 2026. The budget provides for the Gateway mission, despite the significant progress recorded in the construction of the station modules.
