A new round of manned lunar landing is approaching. How many highlights are there?

Recently, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, said that the lunar landing phase of my country's manned lunar exploration project has been launched, and it is planned to achieve the first Chinese landing on the moon before 2030. Looking at the international community, a new round of manned lunar landing missions is being prepared in full swing. What are the new highlights in its mission objectives, personnel selection, vehicles and supporting equipment? Will there be more new concepts, technologies and design solutions? What prospects does the highly anticipated manned lunar landing face?

The path to the moon is innovative

Looking at the manned lunar landing plans of various countries, the "Artemis Project" led by the United States has the most publicity and the greatest ambition. The plan is generally divided into three steps: the first step is an unmanned lunar flight test mission called "Artemis-1", which was successfully completed at the end of last year; NASA is currently preparing for the second step - the "Artemis-2" manned lunar mission to be launched at the end of 2024. The four astronauts have been selected since April this year and are currently stepping up training and preparation; the beginning of the third step is the "Artemis-3" mission originally scheduled to be launched at the end of 2025, which is intended to realize the "return to the moon" of mankind since 1972.

After that, the "Artemis Project" will try to implement manned lunar landings frequently to prepare for long-term scientific research and production life on the lunar surface. To this end, NASA has planned a key mission node - the lunar space station. As a transit station between the earth and the moon, the lunar space station will use reusable spacecraft to establish long-term round-trip "space flights" to help astronauts stay on the lunar surface or in lunar orbit for a long time. Compared with the "Apollo Project", this manned lunar landing project has a larger structure and more steps, which should also be an important reason why the "Artemis Project" is expected to be very expensive.

Moon image taken by Artemis 1 on December 2, 2022

In 2018, Russia announced a manned lunar landing plan, including testing a series of new technologies on the International Space Station and in lunar orbit, attempting to build a lunar space laboratory, exploring new ways to land on the moon, and striving to build a lunar base around 2035. According to the initial plan, Russia will build modular experimental research facilities on the lunar surface or in lunar orbit to support manned scientific research missions of different durations and implement round-trip transfers between the earth and the moon. However, as the situation changes, the prospect of Russia's manned lunar landing faces greater uncertainty.

In addition, the European Space Agency, Japan, and India have all proposed manned lunar landing plans, which are very different from the traditional model of "directly reaching" the lunar orbit with a heavy rocket. Although these may not be implemented as scheduled, they all reflect different options for manned lunar landing paths in the new era.

According to public reports, my country has fully deployed and carried out various manned lunar mission research and development work, including the development of a new generation of manned launch vehicles, a new generation of manned spacecraft, lunar landers, lunar suits and other flight products, and the construction of launch sites and related ground equipment and facilities such as measurement, control, communication and landing sites. Among them, the progress in key areas such as the new generation of manned rocket engine test, manned lunar lander engine and cabin wall research, fixed-point landing technology, lunar extreme environment survival research, and lunar gravity condition simulation experiments has been continuously disclosed, indicating that Chinese astronauts have the conditions and confidence to complete the mission on schedule.

More stringent personnel selection

What qualities do astronauts need to have? How are they different from astronauts on low-Earth orbit space stations? These are the core issues that must be addressed in a manned lunar mission.

The new era manned lunar landing plan emphasizes comprehensive benefits and requires humans to survive and move around on the moon for a long time. However, the moon has no atmospheric protection, and threats such as cosmic rays and micrometeorites cannot be ignored. Considering that underground caves on the moon can help resist these threats, especially in the early stages of the lunar mission when it is difficult to quickly build complex and complete buildings, it is necessary for future astronauts to have the ability to survive in lunar craters.

For example, there are huge lava tubes with a diameter of tens of kilometers under the Marius Hills on the moon. The internal structure is complex and the presence of water ice resources cannot be ruled out. Relying on similar lunar crater conditions, combined with 3D printing, in-situ utilization of lunar soil resources and other technologies, it may be possible to provide astronauts with an excellent place to deal with various threats such as extreme temperatures on the lunar surface. Furthermore, lunar base buildings with complete protective measures and a suitable internal environment will provide astronauts with a better foundation for work and life.

Compared with the low-Earth orbit space station with a precisely controllable internal environment, the environment faced by astronauts on the moon is more challenging and risky, so they must have better psychological quality and physical fitness. Due to the greater distance between the earth and the moon and the limited support capacity of the lunar space station, it is difficult for astronauts on the moon to get reinforcements in time, and more emphasis is placed on independent work and decision-making ability. More knowledge about the moon is needed to deal with emergencies.

Taking the selection of astronauts for the moon landing as an example, the United States requires more than 1,000 hours of jet aircraft flying experience and a master's degree or above in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Although NASA has not disclosed much about the selection and training of astronauts for the moon landing, it is generally believed that the astronauts of the "Artemis Project" will include more experts in geology, architecture, mineralogy, electromagnetic communications, etc., in order to complete more complex scientific research tasks and vision development projects.

In addition, many foreign commercial aerospace companies have actively developed supporting equipment and facilities such as lunar landers, lunar remote navigation constellations, lunar energy supply and communication equipment, and lunar exploration robots in recent years. The investment in new rockets, deep space manned spacecraft, and lunar space suits hides the ambitions of commercial aerospace practitioners. In the future, it should not be surprising that commercial aerospace companies will participate in manned lunar landing business, promote lunar resource development, and moon circumlunar tourism projects.

Artemis 3 spacesuit prototype

Dreams are beautiful and challenges are faced

With the advancement of technology in many fields, the manned lunar mission has more options and a more mature technical foundation, which attracts all parties to actively participate. However, as a large and complex aerospace system project, the manned lunar mission is facing new requirements and new missions, and it is impossible for it to be smooth sailing.

First, the competition among all parties for lunar and cis-lunar space resources will intensify.

The Artemis Program is the United States's resumption of manned lunar missions after a half-century, marking the United States' active participation in the space competition. NASA has not only repeatedly emphasized the significance of being the first to achieve manned lunar landings in the 21st century, hoping to promote the development of aerospace technology and industry, but also expressed its desire to possess the water ice resources at the lunar South Pole. Recent studies have shown that there may be highly utilized water ice resources at the lunar South Pole. If they can be used to prepare efficient rocket fuel, it is expected to reduce the cost of space missions. Therefore, the new round of lunar exploration plans and manned lunar missions by all parties generally target the lunar South Pole region.

As for the lunar soil helium-3 resources that are expected to help controllable nuclear fusion, as well as the orbits, electromagnetic spectrum, and landing site selection that determine the mission prospects of many probes, lunar space stations, and lunar modules, they are also the focus of competition among all parties. At present, the candidate landing sites on the moon announced by various parties have partially overlapped, and how the parties will coordinate their lunar exploration activities in the future is worthy of attention.

Secondly, as space missions become larger and more complex, the demand for resources is increasing, and the sustainability of space projects, including manned lunar landings, is facing challenges. As a result, the space industry of various countries has generally increased the use and attention of social resources, which has helped space technology achieve fruitful innovative results in the past 10 years, and has also made commercial spaceflight gradually become an indispensable force in the "moon exploration army". At present, commercial spaceflight has proposed many long-term plans such as building "Earth-Moon Flights" and lunar bases, but whether it can find a stable profit point and growth model is still unclear.

The last and most important challenge is the investment issue. As the situation changes, the official investment in space in many countries faces uncertainty, and the lunar exploration missions are constantly postponed or frustrated. It is not easy to turn the dream of manned lunar landing into reality.

Many people still remember that the United States had planned to send astronauts to the moon again before 2024, and announced that this was only an initial goal, and that the moon would be turned into a test site and transit station for manned Mars exploration in the future. However, last year NASA estimated that the "Artemis Project" would cost $93 billion by 2025; recently, NASA admitted that if it obtains $41 billion in the next five years, a "more reliable goal" would be to achieve a manned moon landing in 2028.

In addition, Russia has suspended the development of heavy rockets and adjusted the planning of lunar facilities; the European Space Agency and Japan's space missions have gradually become more dependent on the United States, and their investment is difficult to guarantee. All these have cast a shadow on the prospect of manned lunar landing.

Nevertheless, the moon is the first stop for human beings to explore the solar system in person, and after a half-century of low tide, the manned lunar landing business is expected to usher in another "golden age". Sending astronauts to the moon, establishing a comprehensive mission base, and developing and utilizing lunar resources will be important goals of aerospace in the new era. I wish all countries' manned lunar landing missions will succeed as soon as possible and reveal more mysteries of the moon for mankind. (Author: Zhang Kai)