FPI / October 6, 2024
Geostrategy-Direct
By Richard Fisher
The seriousness of China’s buildup to its first manned Moon mission, perhaps before 2030, was emphasized by three recent revelations: A new Lunar manned spacesuit; a new facility to simulate low gravity lunar landings; and a proposal for “cyclotron” low-cost launch of payloads from the Moon to the Earth.
First, on Sept. 28 in Chongqing City, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) revealed for the first time the Lunar spacesuit that Chinese astronauts will use to walk and work on the Moon.
Images of the Chinese spacesuit reveal that it is sleeker, more compact and perhaps lighter weight design than the spacesuits made famous by numerous Moon walking sessions during the six United States Apollo program missions to the Moon from 1969 to 1972.
A Sept. 28 article in the undeclared state media South China Morning Post noted the suit had been developed over the previous four years, but it is likely that China’s new Moon walking suit has improved upon spacesuit technology purchased from Russia in the 1990s.
A laudatory Sept. 28 article in state media Global Times noted China’s spacesuit, “draws inspiration from traditional Chinese armor, embodying resilience, strength, and dignity, reflecting the courage and pioneering spirit of the Chinese people.”
This article further noted that “regular EVA [extra vehicular activity or space walking] suits prioritize the flexibility of hands for operations, while lunar suits must allow for greater lower body mobility to facilitate walking, climbing, and conducting scientific activities on the moon's surface. Additionally, lunar suits must address the challenge of lunar dust, which is extremely fine and electrostatically charged, leading to potential damage to the suit. Overall, the requirements for lunar suits are more demanding…”
Images of the Chinese Moon walking suit make clear that early Chinese Moon landing craft will require a separate “airlock” to exit the Moon lander, whereas more recent U.S. designs allow for the lift-support backpack to “dock” to vehicles or buildings, allowing for faster entry and exit from the Moon suit.
Global Times even gloated that U.S. main Moon suit developer Axiom Space was experiencing financial instability and “struggled to pay the bills and had laid off at least a hundred employees,” even though the U.S. government funded Moon suit program was a stable part of the company.
Second, a Sept. 20 article on the Chinese Weibo social media platform noted that the China Shipbuilding Group Wuchang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Group Co., or "Wuchang Shipbuilding,” had won a bid to build a “new lunar low-gravity simulation test platform.”
Though Wuchang Shipbuilding has built major structures at the Jiuquan, Xichang and Wencheng Satellite Launch Centers — the last built specifically for Lunar launches — the location of the new Lunar gravity simulator was not revealed, though Wencheng would be a logical choice.
It consists of a tall circular scaffolding that would allow a full-size version of China’s Lanyue Moon landing vehicle to descend more slowly at lunar gravity speeds, useful for astronaut training and simulating emergency responses.
The article did not mention how this facility might help Chinese astronauts to avoid being hit by the Lanyue’s separate booster stage that will slow the Moon lander down close to landing speed, but then detach and crash into the Moon.
Third, an Aug. 18 article in the South China Morning Post revealed that in a recent article for the journal Shanghai Aerospace, researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering (SISE) had proposed the novel use of a nuclear and solar-powered “cyclotron” built on the Moon, to create a low-cost means for sending payloads from the Moon to the Earth.
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