- China aims to launch three missions to the moon over the next decade as part of the Chang’e Moon program.
- China’s National Space Administration got the mission’s approval after discovering a new mineral.
- The mineral, Changesite- (Y), may be a future source of energy and has been found in lunar samples.
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China aims to launch three unmanned missions to the moon after discovering new lunar minerals that could be a future source of energy.
It was announced on Saturday that the space race between China and the United States was accelerating after the Beijing National Space Agency was given the green light to launch three orbits to the moon over the next 10 years. The news first the by Bloomberg.
It comes the day after China became the third country to discover a new moon mineral, called Changesite- (Y), according to The state-controlled Chinese newspaper, Global Times.
China’s Chang’e-5 mission recovered samples from the moon in 2020 and were described by the Global Times as “columnar crystal phosphate minerals” found in lunar rock particles. This metal contains helium-3, which could be a source of energy in the future.
This discovery could cause even more pressure on the United States to step up its efforts after the Artemis I mission to the moon postponed for the second time.
Lunar mining could be the next source of tension between countries, as NASA is also looking into the moon’s south pole as China plans to build a research station in partnership with Russia.
China recently accelerated its efforts in space exploration Build a space stationstart a variety of activities for sample collection of the month He put a rover named Zhurong on Mars earlier this year to compete with NASA.
The United States remains the only country to place astronauts on the moon, with the last landing nearly 50 years ago on the Apollo 17 mission, according to NASA. website.
The US Apollo 11 mission was the first to bring samples from the moon to Earth in July 1969, with approximately 49 pounds (22 kilograms) of material from the lunar surface.
The Chinese National Space Agency has been contacted for comment.
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