LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-China reportedly finalize plans to investigate using 3D printing technology to create structures on the moon, the official China Daily reports.
China’s first lunar soil samples were returned to Earth by an unmanned probe during the Chang’e 5 lunar mission, which launched in 2020 and is named after the lunar goddess in Chinese mythology.
Likewise by 2030, China hopes to send an astronaut to the moon after making its first lunar landing in 2013.
The Chang’e 6, 7 and 8 missions, the last of which is entrusted with finding reusable resources on the moon for long-term human habitation, will be launched by China between now and then.
China Daily reports which cited Wu Weiren, a scientist at the China National Space Administration, the Chang’e 8 probe would undertake on-site examinations of the environment and mineral composition and also investigate if technologies like 3D printing can be used on the lunar surface.
“If we wish to stay on the moon for a long time, we need to set up stations by using the moon’s own materials,” Wu said.
China wants to start building a lunar base using soil from the moon in five years, Chinese media reported earlier this month.
According to a professional from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, A robot tasked with making “lunar soil bricks” will be launched during the Chang’e 8 mission around 2028.
In recent years, especially with the United States, the competition to land on the moon has gotten more intense.
Four astronauts were named this month for the Artemis II mission, which is scheduled for late 2024 and will be the first manned lunar flyby in many years.