China Launches Experiment to Build Lunar Base Using Moon Soil

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BEIJING: China is advancing its ambitious plan to establish the first lunar base by launching an in-space experiment to determine if the base's bricks can be made from the Moon's soil.

A cargo rocket carrying brick samples took off on Friday for the Tiangong space station, as part of Beijing’s mission to land humans on the Moon by 2030 and construct a permanent base by 2035.

The cargo craft Tianzhou-8 was launched from the Wenchang satellite launch center, delivering supplies to the orbiting space station, as reported by state news agency Xinhua and the country’s space agency.

Constructing a Moon base presents significant challenges, as any structure must endure high levels of cosmic radiation, extreme temperature fluctuations, and potential moonquakes. Transporting building materials from Earth is also a costly endeavor.

To address these challenges, scientists from a university in central Wuhan have developed prototype bricks made from various compositions of materials found on Earth, such as basalt, that mimic the properties of lunar soil.

Once the test bricks arrive at the space station, they will undergo a series of rigorous tests.

"It's mainly exposure," explained Zhou Cheng, a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. "To put it simply, we put (the material) in space and let it sit there... to see whether its durability and performance will degrade under the extreme environment."