China to build space station on Moon in next 10 years

China on Wednesday also announced its Long March-5B rocket will make its maiden flight in the first

BEIJING (Dunya News) – China announced today (April 24) to send people on a manned mission to the moon alongside building research station there within the next decade.

Research facilities used in building China s space station were unveiled for the first time in Beijing on Wednesday, the fourth Space Day of the country.

For the debut this time, the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization with the Chinese Academy of Sciences has presented a series of laboratory cabinets which will be later used for carrying out experiment in space. Taking the gravity-changing laboratory cabinet as an example, the cabinet can support experiments conducted under different gravity conditions.

"(The gravity-changing laboratory cabinet) could create a pure environment with different gravities in a way of rotation. For example, it could provide an experiment environment for simulating the gravity on the Moon. (Before we reaching the Moon,) we could carry out some experiments in the gravity of the Moon inside the cabinet, or some pre-researches for production activities," Zhang Lixian, chief designer of the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV).

The laboratory cabinet is a key facility for conducting space scientific researches in the space station. A total of 16 laboratory cabinets will be placed in the space station according to the plan.

"Outside the space capsule, we have some large-sized hitch points as well as standard-load adapters which could allow us to install independent loads outside space capsules so as to carry out relevant researches, such as space astronomy observation, Earth observation and application, space environment and space physics," Zhang Wei, director of the Utilization Development Center of the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the CCTV.

Right now, the scientific research facilities for the space station are under development, with the 16 laboratory cabinets in a prototype development stage. These facilities will then help support hundreds of in-orbit scientific researches under 11 scientific subjects and applications in the future.

"Around 60 of our projects in the first batch have passed assessments, with the majority in the fields of space life science and biotechnology. Because life has always been an area with our most concerns, and it will help solve the problem of living in space in a long term," said Zhang.

It was reported that the construction of China s manned space station will be completed around 2022. By that time, the space station will be able to accommodate large-scale and multi-subject space scientific researches, technical identification and space application.