China may try to consolidate the most richest areas of the moon and prevent the United States on them. Such fears were expressed by the director of the American space agency NASA Bill Nelson in an interview with Politico magazine.
“This is a fact: we participate in the space race, – Nelson said.” We are better off ensuring that they do not stake areas on the moon under the guise of scientific research “.
Nelson admitted that then Beijing could say: “Stay away, we are here, this is our territory.”
In the 2030s, Beijing plans to organize the first inhabited flights to the moon. Probably, China will become the second country after the United States in the world that will be able to deliver a person to a satellite.
In recent years, China has launched several lunar drives to collect samples of the lunar surface, including for the first time in history – on the back of the moon.
According to the Pentagon, China’s plans are included not only to send the Tyikonauts to the Earth’s satellite, but also to establish a communication retranspace there. In the United States, they fear that having created its infrastructure on the moon, China will have the opportunity to block the connection of the future space programs of Western countries.
In China, such accusations reject.
“China advocates the peaceful use of space space and against the arms race in it,” said Liu Penyuy, spokeswoman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
The United States plan to plant astronauts on the moon by the end of 2025. Within the framework of the lunar mission, NASA is going to send the crew to the orbit of the moon in 2024, and in December 2022 a new spaceship without astronauts flew around the moon.