China plans to establish a village on the moon with Europe’s help by 2036.
Now, in a step towards that goal, the nation has created a ‘Lunar Palace’ on Earth to simulate living in isolated conditions on the moon.
Four students from the astronautics research university Beihang yesterday entered the 160-square-metre (1,720-square-foot) cabin, dubbed the ‘Yuegong-1’.
Two groups of four volunteers from Beijing’s astronautics research university will live in a simulated space cabin, measuring 160 square metres (1,720 square foot), over the next year. Two men and two women entered the lab, called ‘Yuegong-1’ or Lunar Palace, yesterday to test how a life-support system works in a moon-like environment. They will then be relieved by another group of four, who will stay 200 days, before returning for an additional 105. The Lunar Palace contains four bed cubicles, a common room, a bathroom, a waste-treatment room and a room for raising animals.Human waste will be treated with a bio-fermentation process, and experimental crops and vegetables grown with the help of food and waste byproducts.
Two men and two women will test how a life-support system works in a moon-like environment.
They will stay for an initial 60 days, when they will then be relieved by another group of four who will stay 200 days, before returning for an additional 105.
The secretary general for China’s space agency, Tian Yulong, disclosed talks between the agency and the ESA back in April.
And the technology being explored in the latest experiment could prove vital to the success of such a mission.
The Lunar Palace is the world’s third bioregenerative life-support base, and the first developed in China.
Human waste will be treated with a bio-fermentation process, and experimental crops and vegetables grown with the help of food and waste byproducts.
It has two plant cultivation modules and a living cabin measuring 42 square metres (452 square foot).
‘I will be in charge of the treatment of solid waste, urine, shredding straw, threshing wheat, processing food and other work,’ one of the student volunteers told CCTV.
It contains four bed cubicles, a common room, a bathroom, a waste-treatment room and a room for raising animals.
It is the only such facility to involve animals and microorganisms as well as plants and humans, its chief designer Liu Hong told CCTV, calling it ‘the first of its kind.’
A similar 105-day trial was carried out successfully in 2014.
The system, called the Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS), allows water and food to be recycled and is key to any Chinese probes to the moon or beyond.
‘The latest test is vital to the future of China’s moon and Mars missions and must be relied upon to guarantee the safety and health of our astronauts,’ Liu Zhiheng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences told news agency Xinhua.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for China to become a global power in space exploration, with plans to send a probe to the dark side of the moon by 2018, the first ever such trip, and to put astronauts on the moon within the next two decades.
‘While it remains unclear exactly how long China’s first lunar explorers will spend on the surface, the country is already planning for longer stays,’ news agency said.
The country’s first cargo space craft docked with an orbiting space lab in April, a major step as Beijing looks to establish a permanently manned space station by 2022.
Despite the advances in China’s space programme for military, commercial and scientific purposes, China still lags behind the United States and Russia.
Last month, it emerged that China is talking with the European Space Agency about collaborating on a human settlement on the moon.
ESA has previously described its ‘Moon Village’ as a potential international launching pad for future missions to Mars.
Further details on what the collaboration could entail were not revealed.
But last year, the head of the ESA elaborated on plans to build a village on the moon.
‘The future of space travel needs a new vision,’ said Jan Woerner.
The concept is a base for lunar exploration by humans and robots, which would act as a stopover for spacecraft, and become a ‘village’ with mining and even tourism.
‘The future of space travel needs a new vision.
‘Right now we have the Space Station as a common international project, but it won’t last forever,’ said Woerner.
‘If I say Moon Village, it does not mean single houses, a church, a town hall and so on. No, that would be misleading.
‘My idea only deals with the core of the concept of a village: people working and living together in the same place.
‘And this place would be on the moon.’
CHINA’S MISSION TO THE MOON DISCOVERS NEW TYPE OF ROCK A type of titanium-rich rock, never before seen by researchers, has been discovered on the surface of the moon. Samples of the unique basalt were gathered by the Chinese rover Jade-Rabbit and researchers have now studied the rock to learn more about the moon’s volcanic surface.In particular, the rock contains a unique mixture of titanium dioxide and olivine, which makes it different from any of the samples returned by the Nasa Apollo missions.The unmanned Chang’e-3 probe and the Jade Rabbit rover touched down on a vast flat flood plain formed of a unique type of volcanic basalt.Analysis of the measurements the rover took while exploring the site have revealed the area formed surprisingly recently and may be among the youngest areas on the lunar surface.While the surface of the moon is largely thought to have been shaped by volcanic eruptions that took place some 3 to 4 billion years ago.But the unusual volcanic basalt rock discovered by the Chinese rover appears to be just 2.96 billion years old.It has been found to contain a unique mixture of minerals that has high levels of titanium dioxide and also another green mineral called olivine.
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