China plans to use the Moon to extend its planetary defense plan to protect the Earth from asteroid impacts that could reach the Earth’s surface.
The idea of the Asian giant is to place three satellites with a lot of fuel and kinetic weapons in the orbit of the Moon around the planet, the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported today.
Under the plan, two telescopes would also be built at the satellite’s poles to survey the sky for any threats slipping through the ground-based early warning network.
“The system will have the ability to intercept incoming asteroids from all directions and can form a defense circle about twice the distance between the Moon and Earth,” said Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s Lunar Exploration Program at his article published in the journal Scientia Sinica Informationis.
The lunar defense line has not yet been approved by the Chinese government, unlike Earth’s defense system consisting of giant radars and telescopes in an attempt to handle an extinction event like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 years ago. millions of years.
China plans to carry out a “manned mission” to the Moon in the next five years, a period in which it will continue to explore the poles of the satellite.
Likewise, the Asian country is developing “a new generation” of manned ships to support Chinese exploration of the space between our planet and the Moon.
Recently, China approved the fourth phase of its Moon exploration program, which includes the construction of a scientific exploration base at the south pole of the satellite in the next decade, a task for which it will collaborate with Russia.
NASA Director Bill Nelson said earlier this month that he was concerned about the possibility of China taking over the moon.
“We must be very concerned that China is going to land on the Moon to say: now it’s ours and you stay out,” Nelson said.
In response, the Chinese government declared that these accusations pose “a great threat” to the peaceful uses of space and has defended that Chinese exploration activities have legitimate economic, social, scientific, technological and security objectives.