Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: via Roscosmos

Russia’s Roscosmos and China’s National Space Administration signed a cooperation program of space activities for 2023-2027.

According to Roscomos, as reported by the TASS news agency, the cooperative agreement was signed at the end of last month.

This year, Roscomos emphasized, the Russian Federation and China continued to intensify cooperation in the space sector.

Artist’s view of International Lunar Research Station to be completed by 2035. Credit: CNSA/Roscosmos

Lunar station

One element of cooperative work between the two nations is establishment of the International Scientific Lunar Station (ISLS).

Previously, Roscosmos and the China National Space Agency (CNSA), as part of the Global Conference on Space Exploration (GLEX-2021), presented a roadmap for the lunar outpost.

According to TASS, construction of the ISLS should be fully completed by 2035.

Chinese scientists have unveiled design of a crew Moon rover.
Credit: New China TV/GLOBALink/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Step-by-step

In earlier, step-by-step stages from 2026 to 2030, two robotic Moon missions are planned to develop technologies for landing and delivering cargo, as well as returning samples of lunar rock to Earth.

From 2031 to 2035, infrastructure in lunar orbit and on the surface of the Moon, including communications systems, as well as electrical power, research and other equipment are to be put in place.

Per the project’s roadmap, the station’s transport infrastructure will include research and technical lunar rovers, as well as a jumping robot.

The parties plan to equip the station with several smart mini-rovers designed to explore the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite.

Moon as observed from the International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA