R
ussia and China have revealed plans to set up an international lunar research station on the surface of the moon , in orbit, or both.
Moscow and Beijing will draw up a roadmap to establish the station and cooperate closely on planning, designing and implementing the project as well as presenting it to the world space community, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said.
“An international lunar science station is a complex of experimental and research facilities created on the surface and/or in orbit of the moon, designed to conduct multidisciplinary and multipurpose research work,” it said.
Russia and China will promote international cooperation on the project and offer equal access to any nation that wants to take part, the agency said in a statement on its website.
The memorandum was signed by Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin and Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, during a meeting by video conference, it said.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969
NASA
This 1969 photograph of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft
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Astronaut Bruce McCandless II photographed 320 ft from the Space Shuttle Challenger during the first untethered EVA, made possible by his nitrogen jet propelled backpack (Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU) in 1984
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The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image
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Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2011. This lift off is the last in the 30-year-old shuttle program
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The first teklevision image of Earth from a weather satellite taken by the TIROS-1 satellite in 1960
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The Echo 2 satellite in 1960. Once the balloon was launched into orbit, a prerecorded message from President Dwight Eisenhower was transmitted from California and heard with clarity in New Jersey
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The original seven Mercury astronauts and pioneers in human space exsploration pose in their silver spacesuits in 1961
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President John F. Kennedy calls for a moon landing in 1961 durning Congress
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Astronaut John Glenn climbs into his Friendship 7 space capsule in the Atlas rocket in 1962. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth
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A close-up view of an astronaut’s bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon in 1969
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Man’s first landing on the Moon. Lunar Module, “Eagle,” touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the east side of the Moon. Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong wre the first men to walk on the Moon in 1969
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After an 8 month voyage to Mars, Mariner 4 makes the first flyby of the Mars (the red planet) in 1965 and became the first spacecraft to take close-up photographs of another planet
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Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission in 1965
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The X-15 completed 199 flights to the edge of space from 1959-1968. Neil Armstrong was one of it’s budding young pilots
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Earthrise over the moon from Apollo 8 in 1968
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American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the mammoth-sized Saturn V rocket on their way to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969
Astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. saluting the US flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969
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View of Moon limb with Earth on the horizon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission
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Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin laugh with President Richard Nixon aboard the USS Hornet in 1969
Richard Nixon Foundation via Getty Images
Lunar mission
Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA) in 1972
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First image of Viking 1’s foot plantid on martian soil foot in 1976
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The first ever long distance image of the Earth and Moon together. The image photograph was taken by Voyager 1 in 1977
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A dramatic view of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and its surroundings in 1979
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The first space shuttle launch Columbia lifts off in 1981
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Astronaut Sally Ride on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. She became the first American woman in space
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One of the most celebrated images taken by the Hubble called ‘Pillars of Creation’
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Space shuttle Challenger destructs after lift off in 1973
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NASA’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope aboard ESA’s SOHO spacecraft took this image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence in 1999. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun’s hot, thin corona
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Trailing a column of flame and smoke that dwarfs it, Space Shuttle Endeavour leaps into the clear blue Florida sky on mission STS-99 in 2000
Space Shuttle Atlantis clears the tower as it roars into space on mission STS-106 after a perfect on-time launch in 2000
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2004
The deepest view of 10,000 galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope called the Hubble Ultra Field Deep (2004)
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A new view of the Eagle Nebula, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken (2005)
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International Space Station pictured by the crew of Atlantis in 2008
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The rim of Gale Crater is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze, in this view of NASA’s Curiosity rover of a sloping hillside on Mount Sharp
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Taken on June 03, 2008 and released by NASA on June 4, 2008 shows US space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Michael Fossum being photographed by US Mission Specialist Ronald Garan (reflected in Fossum’s face shield) as they work outside The International Space Station during the first of three planned space walks.
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In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA’s Great Observatories — Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory — have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way
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A striking black and white image showing the detail of the planet Saturn
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This majestic false-color image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows ‘mountains’ where stars are born. These towering pillars of cool gas and dust are illuminated at their tips with light from warm embryonic stars
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The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas in 2011 prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station
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Aurora Australis, seen from a point over the southeast Tasman Sea near southern New Zealand. in 2011
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NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright sun during the mission’s third session of extravehicular activity (EVA). During the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk in 2012
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Behold one of the more stunningly detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage, created from photographs taken by the VIIRS instrument in 2012 on board the Suomi NPP satellite, shows many stunning details of our home planet
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Numerous recognizable features appear in this detailed view of London, photographed by an Expedition 10 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The most striking visual features are green open spaces such as Regent’s Park, Hyde Park and St. James’s Park east of Buckingham Palace
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International Space Station image of London at night
NASA
This image of Tropical Storm Anna taken from the International Space Station in 2015
NASA
Pluto’s haze layer and its blue colour, taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) in 2015
NASA
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, dark, narrow streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars. These dark features on the slopes are called “recurring slope lineae” or RSL
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Earth observation taken during a night pass by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016
NASA
The moon rises in low Earth orbit by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station in 2017
NASA
Hurricane Harvey is pictured off the coast of Texas in 2017
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The International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as Expedition 50 astronauts captured this night image of sparkling cities and a sliver of daylight framing the northern hemisphere in 2017
This composite image made from a series of 2018 photos shows a self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover in the Gale Crater
NASA
US. National Parks From Space. Mt Saint Helen’s looking spectacular from above
NASA
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft as it lifts off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2018
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NASA’s Juno spacecraft captures Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter in 2018
NASA
The stunning iamge was shared on social media by astronaut Paolo Nespoli
NASA
The Bailey’s Beads effect is seen as the moon makes its final move over the sun during the total solar eclipse
NASA
The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington
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Swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter’s northern hemisphere picture taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed it’s 13th flypast. Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops.
NASA
Russia and China have sought to deepen their relations in recent years, especially since 2014 when Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine badly strained its ties with the West.
Earlier on Tuesday China and France reaffirmed their commitment to working together in the field of space exploration.
