Pakistan has joined China’s growing list of collaborators in an ambitious project to construct a research station on the moon’s south pole, an area of “mystery, science, and intrigue.”
Pakistan and China Cooperation Agreement Signing Ceremony
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar ul Haq Kakar, who is in China for the Third Road and Belt Forum (BRF), witnessed the signing of an initial cooperation agreement with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
The China National Space Administration announced on Friday that cooperation would include engineering and operational aspects of China’s lunar base program.
China has already secured cooperation from Russia, Venezuela, and South Africa in its goal of becoming a major space power by 2030.
It has set a goal of landing astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade.
The timetable for constructing an outpost on the South Pole coincides with NASA’s more ambitious Artemis program, which aims to return US astronauts to the lunar surface by December 2025, barring delays.
India Landed on the South Pole of the Moon
This August, India made history by becoming the first country to reach the unexplored moon’s south pole — the part of the lunar surface that is permanently hidden from Earth’s view.
It became the fourth country in history to land on the moon and the first to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, just days after a similar Russian mission failed, and the fourth in history to achieve a soft landing.
The United States and India both intend to send astronauts to the moon by 2025 and 2040, respectively.
The last time a human walked on the moon was in 1972, as part of the US Apollo program.
To read our blog on “New spacesuit revealed by NASA for Artemis moon landing,” click here.
