China and Russia join hands again! This time, the target is locked in the South Pole of the Moon, against the space version of the Western Eight-Power Alliance.

According to Russian media, on February 12, Russia approved the plan to jointly build a lunar research station with China, which means that China and Russia have joined hands again, this time aiming at the South Pole of the Moon. Before joining forces with China, Russia rejected the cooperation plan proposed by the United States, and the US-Russia lunar orbit space station project is likely to be abandoned.

Legend: Imagination map of Sino-Russian lunar research station

NASA has previously proposed a lunar orbit space station project, and the Russian Aerospace Group also intends to participate in the formation of the second-generation international space station. However, the United States needs to occupy a dominant position, and the Russian Aerospace Group cannot obtain enough status and technology on the lunar orbit space station, which leads to the abandonment of US-Russian cooperation. Seeing that China has made great progress in exploring the moon, China's Chang 'e III, Chang 'e IV and Chang 'e V probes have successfully landed on the moon, and the technology of 7500N and 3000N deep space engines has been fully mastered, and a soft landing on the back of the moon has been realized. These technological breakthroughs enabled Russia to explore the moon with China, which was also a milestone in China's space technology progress.

You know, the advantage of the Russian Aerospace Group lies in the engine. The 3000N engine was developed by the Sixth Hospital and also installed on Tianwen 1 for orbit control. A few days ago, the 3000N engine was successfully ignited, which made Tian Wen-1 enter the orbit around Mars and became the first Mars probe in China.

In the past 16 years, China carried out the Chang 'e project slowly and steadily, and now it has successfully obtained moon rock samples. In the next two years, we will also carry out the Chang 'e VI project, which is expected to collect materials from the South Pole of the Moon and return to Earth.

Legend: Russian space technology still has certain advantages, but China's great progress in the Chang 'e project has led Russia to seek cooperation.

After China and Russia join hands, Russia will also develop its own technology in deep space exploration and build a lunar research station with China. The most likely place is the south pole of the moon. Because NASA plans to land on the south pole of the moon in 2024, there is a lot of water and ice, and if you want to stay on the moon, you must solve the water problem, so the south pole will be a battleground.

In 2020, the United States took the lead in forming the space version of the G8 Alliance, signed the Artemis Agreement with Japan, Australia, Canada, Italy, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates, Britain and * * * *, and participated in the American Artemis return to the moon program. China and Russia are obviously rivals of Artemis' plan to return to the moon, and the two sides will form a competitive situation in the South Pole of the moon. This article is exclusively published by Icarus Space, and it is forbidden to reprint without authorization.