Beijing (TDI): China and Russia have reached an agreement for the construction of a nuclear power plant on the moon.
A contract of collaboration signed by China and Russia noted that the Russian reactor will power the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), which is jointly headed by China and Russia and is likely to be completed by 2036, according to media reports.
It was reported shortly after NASA unveiled a budget proposal for 2026 that would eliminate the agency’s orbital lunar outpost plans.
According to a 2024 interview with Yury Borisov, director general of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, on the Russian state-owned news site TASS, the Chinese-Russian reactor’s construction will be likely completed autonomously “without the presence of humans.”
Although it’s still unclear exactly how this may be accomplished, Borisov said that the technology measures are “almost ready.”
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The station will conduct fundamental space research and test technology for long-term uncrewed operations of the ILRS, with the possibility of a human being’s presence on the Moon,” Roscosmos said in a notice issued on May 8 after the memorandum was inked.
Pakistan, Venezuela, Egypt, Thailand and South Africa are among the 17 countries that have joined the initiative thus far.
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The new research station is a permanent, manned lunar colony situated on the lunar’s south pole. China’s 2028 Chang’e-8 mission, Beijing’s first to land a man on the moon, will lay the foundation for it.
Beijing and Moscow said in June 2021 that they will use five super heavy-lift rocket launches between 2030 and 2035 to loft the components for a robotic moon base as part of the ILRS program.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
