The preliminary text is coordinated with Russian federal agencies and China. The space agency Roscosmos reserves the right to make non-essential changes.
The Russian government authorized the Russian space agency Roscosmos on Thursday to sign a memorandum of understanding with China on cooperation in establishing an international scientific lunar station.
According to the document, the idea was proposed by Roscosmos and coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, and other interested Russian federal agencies. It was also provisionally agreed with Beijing. The Russian Space Agency reserves the right to make non-essential changes to the text of the Memorandum.
Last March, the Institute of Space Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced that in 2024, the Luna 26 orbiter will begin creating a 3-D map of the moon to find the most suitable place for landing a manned mission. So it was reported that the first Russian cosmonaut could reach the natural satellite in 2031.
China, for its part, completed the mission of the Chang’e-5 probe in December, which brought 2 kilograms of soil samples and moon rocks to Earth. The development of the Chinese space program is foreseen. Therefore, the Chang’e-6 is expected to land on the satellite around 2024 to collect lunar soil and transport it to Earth. Chang’e-7 will bring a rover and a small jet engine demonstration module to the moon Finally, the Chang’e-8 will develop key technologies for construction of a lunar station, which makes scientific research possible and mining on the lunar surface