Wu Yanhua, vice director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and chief designer of China’s deep space exploration program, said that by 2035, lunar base residents will be able to conduct research within a radius of 100 kilometers from the South Pole of the Moon.

By 2050, the International Scientific Lunar Station will be a network of research centers at the South Pole, the equator and backside of the Earth’s moon.

The Tiangong-type space station, which will emerge in lunar orbit, will serve as a transportation hub between Earth and the Moon. The International Scientific Lunar Station project, first proposed by China and Russia in 2017, aims to create an expandable platform for scientific research and the use of lunar resources. It is often seen as a rival to the US-led Artemis program.

Senegal joined the International Scientific Lunar Station program last week and today the list of participating countries is as follows: Russia, China, Venezuela, Belarus, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, South Africa, Egypt, Nicaragua, Thailand, Serbia and Kazakhstan.

The organizations that signed the memorandum of cooperation include the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Panama Space Science Innovation Center, the Belgrade Observatory in Serbia, the National University of Science and Technology in Pakistan and the Bandar Lampung University in Indonesia. Over the next 10 years, China plans to involve 50 countries, 500 research institutes and 5,000 scientists from around the world in the project.