A national university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the latest partner of China in the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project, aiming to build a long-term human settlement near the Moon’s South Pole by the mid-2030s, SCMP reported on November 28.
A memorandum of understanding regarding cooperation related to ILRS was signed between Sharjah University (UAE) and China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) during the Arab Astronomical and Space Science Alliance Conference held at Sharjah University last week.
Another partner has joined China’s International Lunar Research Station aiming to build a base at the Moon’s South Pole. (Photo: China National Space Administration).
Both parties plan to collaborate and exchange data on lunar science as well as other issues, while China welcomes all Arab countries to participate in the project, DSEL stated on its official WeChat account on November 22.
More than 10 parties are involved in ILRS; is the US also interested in joining?
This new partnership has increased the total number of ILRS members led by China to over 10 parties, while the Artemis Agreement led by the United States currently has 32 signatories.
The first partner that China called for cooperation within ILRS was Russia. In March 2021, the two space powers announced that they were collaborating on an ambitious project named the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
According to China, there are three main phases in the ILRS lunar effort, located 384,403 km from Earth: Surveying, constructing, and utilizing.
Among these, the surveying phase will be carried out by additional unlaunched robotic missions such as Chang’e 6, Chang’e 7, and Russian probes like Luna-25, Luna-26, and Luna-27. Although Luna-25 failed in August 2023, Russia plans to retry it in the near future, Space reported.
This highlights Russia’s importance in ILRS. Previously, at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held in the capital city of Baku, Azerbaijan, on October 2, 2023, China did not mention Russia in the ILRS plan overview. This move initially led to misunderstandings that China was “turning its back” on Russia following the failure of Luna-25. However, observers believe this was China’s way of encouraging more partners to join ILRS.
Besides Russia, national space agencies from Venezuela, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, and Belarus have cooperated with China on the ILRS project since July 2023, according to an official statement from DSEL.
ILRS has also attracted non-governmental organizations, including the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) in the US, and the startup nanoSPACE in Switzerland.
According to Wu Weiren, the chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program and general director of DSEL, the list of ILRS partners also includes the UAE, Argentina, and Brazil, countries that signed cooperation agreements or expressed their intention to collaborate with China in April 2023.
In negotiations with more countries as potential participants, China welcomes “all agencies, non-governmental organizations, and individuals to participate in ILRS at all stages and levels”, Wu Weiren stated at an international space exploration conference in Hefei, Anhui, China, in late April 2023.
Illustration of China’s International Lunar Research Station. (Photo: CNSA).
Steve Durst, president of the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA), stated that while the US is temporarily leading the race back to the Moon, China’s approach has certain advantages.
Steve Durst remarked: “The Artemis Agreement is achieving great success on a nation-to-nation basis, but its scope could expand from civil space agencies to the broader moon exploration community in a democratic way, similar to how China has opened up initiatives for NGO participation in ILRS.”
“If independent organizations or even individuals are allowed to participate in the Artemis Agreement, we would like to sign it even before signing ILRS, and we still hope to do that as soon as possible,” Steve Durst added.
Both the US and China have stated that their programs are “open” to all countries without exception. While the Wolf Amendment has prohibited NASA from engaging in bilateral cooperation with China for 12 years since 2011, multilateral cooperation is permitted.
In an interview with the Russian news agency TASS last month, NASA’s media official Tiffany Travis stated that the agency would “open the door” to the possibility of participating in ILRS.
“And China is not excluded from signing the Artemis Agreement,” Brian Weeden from the Secure World Foundation, a consulting organization in Washington D.C., stated.
