What are China’s plans for deep space exploration … and beyond?
The United States has long held the lead in the space race, but the Chinese programme is catching up fast
The US Senate has approved an extra US$10 billion for Nasa’s Artemis moon exploration programme, giving a major boost to contractors such as Boeing.
While many see it as a domestic win over newer space players including SpaceX, it also signals the Trump administration’s determination to stay ahead of China in an intensifying space race.
Here we look at how China is expanding its deep-space ambitions, from putting astronauts on the moon to returning rocks from Mars, and how it is posing the most serious challenge to US space leadership in 60 years.
Will the next words spoken on the moon be in Mandarin?
Possibly.
China aims to land two astronauts on the moon before 2030, with all major hardware now in prototype development and large-scale testing.
The Chinese programme’s Mengzhou crew capsule passed a critical safety test just last month, and the Long March-10 moon rocket could make its maiden flight as early as next year. China is also developing the Lanyue lunar lander and the Wangyu spacesuit, both undergoing trials.
Nasa still leads on paper, with Artemis III targeting a crewed landing no earlier than 2027. But the mission faces big technical hurdles. In particular, its massive lunar lander – a modified SpaceX Starship – requires in-orbit refuelling, something that has not been done before.
In congressional testimony in February, Dan Dumbacher, a former senior Nasa official, called the Artemis timeline “very suspect”.
“The probability of the United States safely landing humans on the moon by 2030, with the current plan, is remote at best,” he warned.
How serious is China about building a base on the moon?
Very serious.
China aims to build a permanent base called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) near the moon’s south pole by 2035, and the planning is already under way.
In 2023, more than 100 researchers from universities, laboratories, and space companies gathered in the central city of Wuhan for the first major planning meeting. Since then, a team has worked out how to bake lunar bricks using simulated soil and sent them to China’s Tiangong space station for testing under extreme space conditions.
China hopes to make its first real brick on the moon in 2028, during the Chang’e-8 mission. A team in the central province of Anhui has built a 3D printer that uses concentrated sunlight to melt lunar soil into bricks that are strong enough for roads and buildings. They have also developed a prototype to extract water ice, using a bundle of tiny drill needles to heat the lunar soil, release vapour and collect it.
Architects in China have proposed various concepts for the research station, including bases on the open lunar surface, at the bottom of craters, and in underground lava tubes. Each features multiple linked modules and is meant to support three to four astronauts during short-term stays.
Will China beat Nasa to the next big discovery beyond the moon?
Possibly – at least when it comes to bringing back rocks from Mars.
China’s Tianwen-3 mission, now in development, aims to collect and return at least 500 grams of Martian samples by 2031.
The plan involves two spacecraft. One will land on Mars to drill, scoop and deploy a drone to grab rocks nearby. The collected material will then be launched into orbit, where a second spacecraft will rendezvous, capture the container, and bring it back to Earth.
That timeline puts Nasa at a clear disadvantage. The US began collecting samples on the red planet with its Perseverance rover in 2021, but the return mission has been plagued by ballooning costs and major delays, with no final plan or launch date in sight.
There is also a real possibility that China could overtake the US in solar system exploration. Nasa’s science programme is facing deep budget cuts, putting missions to Venus, Jupiter, near-Earth asteroids, and even the distant Kuiper Belt at risk – including some that are already in space.
China, meanwhile, is forging ahead. It recently launched Tianwen-2, a mission to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid, and is planning Tianwen-4, which will target Jupiter and Uranus for a rare leap into the outer solar system.
Will China take the lead in building the infrastructure that deep space depends on?
Probably.
China has already made history by deploying the first relay satellite, called Queqiao, in a special halo orbit beyond the moon. From that position, it enables continuous communication between Earth and China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft – the first to make a soft landing on the moon’s far side.
Its successor, Queqiao-2, launched earlier this year, is even more capable. Operating in a highly elliptical lunar orbit, it is designed to support up to 10 missions operating on the lunar far side simultaneously.
Looking ahead, Chinese scientists have proposed building a BeiDou-like navigation and communication system for the moon and deep space.
The plan is for 20 to 30 satellites to be placed in various orbits around Earth, the moon, and in between, which will provide high-bandwidth communication and real-time navigation services for a moon landing, moon base construction, and even a crewed landing on Mars.
While Nasa and its partners are focused on building the Gateway lunar station, China is seizing the initiative to create the critical infrastructure that deep-space exploration will rely on in decades to come.