China and the Moon

[Ravenlocke]

In searching for answers to the question, whether the US Artemis program is the rival to the China’s objective for a lunar outpost, I found Artaud Bertrand’s X lengthy comment on the topic.

Text:
I’m seeing a lot of questions on the launch of China’s Chang’e 6 mission yesterday to get samples - for the first time - from the far side of the moon.

We don’t know (afaik) why specifically they’re doing that, but we have a pretty good idea what grand vision China is working towards with their space program.

How? From this 2022 video by Chas Freeman (former Assistant Secretary of Defense and Nixon's interpreter during his era-defining 1972 China visit), who imho is undoubtedly one of the most knowledgeable former US officials on China.

He says that according to his own discussions with people running China’s space program, they’re following the vision described in the book "The high frontier" by Gerard K. O'Neill, which Freeman says has "become the bible of the Chinese space program".

I read the book. So what vision does it describe?

The book was written in 1976 by O'Neill who was a professor of physics at Princeton University. He also founded the Space Studies Institute, an organization devoted to funding research into space manufacturing and colonization. In other words, he knew his stuff.

The book makes the very fair point that we have massive resource constraints on earth, especially given the growing population. He estimated in 1976 that we should be "about six and a half billion people in the year 2000", and we were 6.114 billion back then so he was pretty prescient. He estimates that these constraints will progressively give rise to more and more social tensions as the growing earth population competes for our limited resources as well as faces global problems like climate change. In his view, dealing with this will either require "an authoritarian regime capable of mounting the immense task of social reorganization needed to escape catastrophe" or, alternatively, “mankind would [need to adopt] a static society [that would be] forced in self-defense to suppress new ideas". The 3rd alternative is of course the colonization of space.

The most interesting aspect of the book is that he claims everything he writes is feasible with knowledge and technology that already existed in the late 70s. In short he calls for the establishment of large human habitats in the Earth-Moon system, located at stable Lagrange points ("parking spots" in space where gravity from different spatial bodies cancel each other out).

In particular he developed the concept of what's known today as the "O'Neill cylinder" which he says "could support quite easily a population of ten million people, growing its food in agricultural cylinders near but outside the main habitat".

Energy-wise, it'd simply make use of solar energy via a system of mirrors. As he describes it: "the concentration of the unvarying, intense sunlight of space by very lightweight, inexpensive mirrors can provide all the energy that industry will ever need [...] at a fraction of a cent per kilowatt-hour".

He envisages building these habitats with material from the moon, shot into space via "mass drivers", a form of electromagnetic catapult. Also "the habitats would have artificial gravity similar as that of earth by rotating about twenty-eight times an hour”, but he also envisages low-gravity areas, especially for recreational activities such as swimming pools or dancing representations.

To trade with earth, he develops the idea of beaming solar power back to earth via "microwave from solar power stations in orbit". As he describes it "the microwave beam would arrive at Earth with a beam width of about seven kilometers. Its intensity would be modest, less than half that of sunlight. In contrast to sunlight, though, it would be there all the time, even at night or in clouds or rain, and it would be in a form ready for conversion to DC current with a loss of only 10 percent. The areas receiving these beams’ output on Earth would be fenced, and outside the fence the intensity of microwave radiation would be no higher than outside a microwave oven with the door closed.

He estimates that if "Satellite Solar Power Stations (SSPS) were to become the sole source of electric energy in the United States in the year 2000, the land area necessary for the SSPS antennas would still be only 0.2 percent of that of the continental United States". In short, the establishment of space colonies could lead to the fulfillment of a good share of Earth's energy needs.

Last but not least he describes life in space habitats as better than that of earth, largely thanks to the level of control we'd have over the environment (total climate control which would enable an abundance of food and no natural disaster) as well as unlimited cheap energy.

To conclude, Chas Freeman typically really knows his stuff when it comes to China and he’s very intellectually honest (a rare trait among US officials) so I have no doubt he tells the truth when he says the Chinese told him that was the vision. And China famously thinks very big and very long term so it would be quite like them to go for something like this.

There are also quite a few tangible signs that China is working towards that vision. See for instance this November 2022 news where “China’s space station will join a project to collect solar power from space and send it to Earth in a high-energy microwave beam”: https://scmp.com/news/china/science/...er-plant-chief That’s exactly O’Neill’s vision!

Or check this October 2022 news that says China is developing new "electromagnetic sledges" that can propel a carriage weighing a few tonnes to a record speed, with a key application for this being “aerospace”: https://scmp.com/news/china/science/...ly-speed-sound Remember: O’Neill’s vision is to build his habitats with material from the moon, shot into space via "mass drivers", a form of electromagnetic catapult. So there you go…

Or also the fact that the Chinese will build, together with the Russians, a moon base - planned for 2028 - powered by a “space nuclear reactor” that’s already been developed (on Earth) and has passed review by China’s Ministry of Science: https://scmp.com/news/china/science/...d-running-2028 The space nuclear reactor can generate 1MW of electricity, enough to power 10 International Space Stations. Enough power, maybe, to undertake mining activity and power an electromagnetic catapult…

After visions change, the world changes, so it’s also possible that China’s view on what they want to do has evolved. In any case, Chas Freeman is right that China’s motivation for all its initiatives in space can’t just be to “boldly explore where no-one has been before”, they have to be working towards something.

And Freeman is also absolutely right to lament that the U.S. decided to ban any cooperation in space with the Chinese. Those endeavors are something that could have been jointly developed as a multilateral effort to unite us all as a species… Instead China is now forced to go at it alone with Russia and we face a future where our petty divisions on Earth will be carried with us to space…

https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1786611294218702934

[Ravenlocke]

May 2024

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In less than 1 hour, China's Chang'e 6 will head to the moon, and it's not going alone! Instruments from France🇫🇷, Italy🇮🇹, Pakistan🇵🇰, and the European Space Agency🇪🇺 are hitching a ride too.

The US has long been stirring up the "China Space Threat" narrative. Of course, China is a threat. A threat to US hegemony in the space.

To maintain its space hegemony, the US Congress even passed the Wolf Amendment in 2011 to ban NASA's future collaboration with China.

But it can't slow China's pace.

In 2019, Chang'e 4 achieved a historic touchdown on the moon's far side. Germany🇩🇪, Sweden🇸🇪, Netherlands🇳🇱, and Saudi Arabia🇸🇦 were already partners in the mission.

In 2020, Chang'e 5 achieved a major milestone by successfully returning soil samples from the moon.

This time, Chang'e 6 will bring back samples from the moon's far side, an unprecedented mission.

Space is not a domain owned by a single nation. International cooperation is essential for lunar exploration, and China is doing so!

In the latest disclosure, China involves more countries in its lunar exploration project.

Chang'e 7, scheduled to launch around 2026, will carry instruments from Egypt🇪🇬, Bahrain🇧🇭, Italy🇮🇹, Russia🇷🇺, Switzerland🇨🇭, Thailand🇹🇭, and the International Lunar Observatory Association🌖, for joint lunar research activities.

https://x.com/XH_Lee23/status/1786312589498355836

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🚀 U.S. Policy Backfires in Space Race

Did you know the U.S. barred China from joining the International Space Station (ISS)? In 2011, the U.S. enacted the Wolf Amendment, prohibiting NASA from collaborating with China in space endeavours. This move excluded China from the ISS program.

In response, China launched its own space station, Tiangong, in 2021. Now, as the ISS approaches decommissioning around 2030, Tiangong is set to be the sole operational space station, welcoming international partners.

Ironically, the Wolf Amendment aimed to hinder China's space progress but inadvertently propelled it forward, leaving the U.S. sidelined in collaborative space exploration.

China is and always has been about global collaboration, which is more than can be said about the U.S.

https://x.com/commiepommie/status/1925722944136712559

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There used to be no competition in the moon landing between China and the United States. China's moon landing plan was made a long time ago and will be completed before 2030. The American plan was approved in 2017 by Trump:

Artemis 1 (2021, unmanned in orbit flight test);
Artemis 2 (2023, manned in orbit flight test);
Artemis 3 (2024, manned moon landing).

However, after several delays, Artemis 1 was not completed until December 2022, so NASA announced that the moon landing would be postponed until 2025; On January 2024, NASA announced another postponement until September 2026.

if Americans keep delaying like this, there will be suspense over who will land on the moon first, China and the United States? Especially in the context where many people question the authenticity of American moon landings in last century, this competition is going to be very interesting.

https://x.com/BeijingDai/status/1791323669211566240

[Patient]

Posted by Ravenlocke (here)

And Freeman is also absolutely right to lament that the U.S. decided to ban any cooperation in space with the Chinese. Those endeavors are something that could have been jointly developed as a multilateral effort to unite us all as a species… Instead China is now forced to go at it alone with Russia and we face a future where our petty divisions on Earth will be carried with us to space…

Thank you for that! I have not followed the "space race" topic for a long time and would not have seen that if you didn't post it.

And I was just thinking about how much we might progress as a unified species if the U.S. would partner in some way. ( I am not a globalist - just human.) And there was that last paragraph...perfect!

[Ravenlocke]

https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...al-2025-04-23/

China, Russia may build nuclear plant on moon to power lunar station, official says

SHANGHAI, April 23 (Reuters) - China is considering building a nuclear plant on the moon to power the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) it is planning with Russia, a presentation by a senior official showed on Wednesday.

China aims to become a major space power and land astronauts on the moon by 2030, and its planned Chang’e-8 mission for 2028 would lay the groundwork for constructing a permanent, manned lunar base.

The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here.

In a presentation in Shanghai, the 2028 mission's Chief Engineer Pei Zhaoyu showed that the lunar base’s energy supply could also depend on large-scale solar arrays, and pipelines and cables for heating and electricity built on the moon's surface.

Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said last year it planned to build a nuclear reactor on the moon’s surface with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) by 2035 to power the ILRS.
The inclusion of the nuclear power unit in a Chinese space official’s presentation at a conference for officials from the 17 countries and international organisations that make up the ILRS suggests Beijing supports the idea, although it has never formally announced it.

"An important question for the ILRS is power supply, and in this Russia has a natural advantage, when it comes to nuclear power plants, especially sending them into space, it leads the world, it is ahead of the United States," Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program, told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

After little progress on talks over a space-based reactor in the past, "I hope this time both countries can send a nuclear reactor to the moon," Wu said.

China's timeline to build an outpost on the moon's south pole coincides with NASA's more ambitious and advanced Artemis programme, which aims to put U.S. astronauts back on the lunar surface in December 2025.
Wu said last year that a "basic model" of the ILRS, with the Moon's south pole as its core, would be built by 2035.

In the future, China will create the "555 Project," inviting 50 countries, 500 international scientific research institutions, and 5,000 overseas researchers to join the ILRS.

Researchers from Roscosmos also presented at the conference in Shanghai, sharing details about plans to look for mineral and water resources, including possibly using lunar material as fuel.

The ILRS preceded Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but incentives for cooperation between Roscosmos and CNSA have increased since the outbreak of the war, according to Chinese analysts.

With China's rapid technological advances and lunar achievements, and as Western sanctions prevent Roscosmos from many imports of space technology and equipment, China can now "alleviate the pressure" on Russia and help it "achieve new breakthroughs in satellite launches, lunar exploration, and space stations," Liu Ying, a researcher at the Chinese foreign ministry's diplomatic academy, wrote in a journal article last year.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
Just in - the Trump administration proposes the cancellation of NASA’s SLS rocket after Artemis III and the Lunar Gateway space station.

To transition the Artemis Program to have more sustainable lunar exploration, commercial entities will now take over NASA crewed lunar missions and Gateway hardware will be repurposed for other missions.

This is all in an effort for NASA to beat China back to the Moon as the nation is preparing to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030.

https://x.com/tobyliiiiiiiiii/status...37613196648935

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The Artemis Program & China’s lunar EVA spacesuit, compared side by side.

NASA aims to land crew on the Moon in 2026, China is pushing to do the same before 2030. The race is certainly on.

https://x.com/tobyliiiiiiiiii/status...66523164299438

[Ravenlocke]

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What's behind ambitious Russo-Chines Moon station program?

Russia is pushing ahead with plans to install a nuclear power plant on the surface of the Moon for a joint Russo-Chinese lunar project.

Roscosmos General Director Yuri Borisov has flown to the People's Republic, where he is due to discuss with the endeavor with the Chinese space agency.

🔸 Roscosmos, Russia’s State Corporation for Space Activities, announced a joint scientific lunar station project with China in March 2023. In 2021 Moscow and Beijing signed an intergovernmental agreement on joint lunar exploration.

🔸 To ensure the uninterrupted functioning of the station, the sides decided to use nuclear energy. A lunar day lasts 27 Earth days, and for half of this time sunlight does not reach the surface of the Moon, maing solar panels unviable.

🔸 A nuclear reactor designed to power the international lunar station would be initially tested on Earth, Borisov told reporters in May.

🔸 Russia is planning to install the reactor on the Moon in the 2030s. The mission will be unmanned and automated, using robots to avoid radiation risks, according to Roscosmos.

🔸 "The lunar station's task… would be to conduct multidisciplinary, multi-purpose research work to study the Moon and to use it," Deputy General Director of Roscosmos Sergei Savelyev told the Federation Council Committee meeting in June.

🔸 On June 25, China's Chang'e-6 robotic lunar (https://t.me/SputnikInt/58350) exploration lander returned to Earth with the first samples of Moon rock, marking the successful completion of its 53-day mission. The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program was founded in January 2004.

🔸 The Russian Moon Exploration Program dates back to the Soviet era. The Soviet Luna 16 was the first robotic mission that returned a sample of lunar soil to Earth in 1970. Despite the Russian Luna-25 entering to an unplanned orbit last year, Roscosmos' lunar exploration effort is developing full-throttle.

*the pic is AI-generated

https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1811061849657397676

[leavesoftrees]

Russia is pushing ahead with plans to install a nuclear power plant on the surface of the Moon for a joint Russo-Chinese lunar project

I thought NPPs need an enormous quantity of water. Where is that going to come from?

[Irminsül]

Excellent answer, Jaak. Many people speak without knowing the truth. All because the "winners" of World War II are in charge of telling everyone all the time: there are literally hundreds of films against German National Socialism (Nazi is a pejorative term) showing them as cold and inhuman beings. In Dune 2, even, which came out in 2024, they are once again shown as the absolute order that leads to evil. That's not true. In many aspects (human virtues), they were and are superior to most Jews: they shake your hand and, behind your back, turn around and speak ill of you, conspire to betray you, or believe themselves to be a superior race (goyim) and that you don't even deserve their pity. People believe otherwise, but Jewish rabbis are as much, if not more, pedophiles than Catholic priests or Islamic imams. And I repeat that many people have no idea and the true Talmudic Jews continue sacrificing humans, both children and adults, to their true gods: Satan, Baal, Moloch, Asmodeus, etc.

[Irminsül]

Hi Seehas, I agree that there is a group of beings (the satanic reptilians) who benefit from humans killing or fighting each other. Meanwhile, they benefit from rapes, whether in a synagogue, a mosque, or a church. They take advantage of the evil they do to us by parasitizing us on a planetary level in every way. They are beings from the negative 4th dimension who eat humans, both figuratively and literally. In that sense, ufologists like Salvador Freixedo, who said that we are a human farm and that we must defend ourselves from the "gods," did make sense.

[Bill Ryan]

Mod note from Bill:

Um... isn't this thread about China and the Moon?

[Irminsül]

Good day, Bill! Yes, sorry. I’m not continuing with the topic of National Socialism vs. Jews anymore. What happened is that after putting so much effort into making the report I did and creating those image collages, Vicus told me that everyone here already knew 99.9% of what I shared (which I doubt is actually the case, by the way). I even included some pretty hard-to-find photos of Nazi craft made with reverse engineering. I even found a real photo of a Nazi base in a crater on the dark side of the Moon. What did you think of my contribution? I remembered you when you said that once someone from Europe showed you dozens or even hundreds of photos of Nazi craft, but didn’t allow the material to be shared.

[Applesprig]

You are brave to speak where few dare to go.

[Irminsül]

Thank you, Applesprig! The thing is, I believe one cannot live in fear of whether the Mossad, the CIA, or the lizards from Zeta Reticuli are listening to or reading you when you express yourself in this plane. I am absolutely clear that I am a Pleiadian who works for and on behalf of the Galactic Confederation that follows the Plan of God, of ABBA, Elohei Kedem, the Ein Sof. I have a human body and was born of “human” father and mother; but I know perfectly well why I came here and what I’m doing (like MacGyver haha).

So, as the good Pleiadian and Venusian that I am, I will do the only thing I know how to do: kill reptilians. Whether the people I speak to like it or not, when I speak I manifest my being, which is completely aligned with my Solar Logos. Some will like that clarity and directness, and others won’t; such is Life.

[Michi]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by leavesoftrees (here)
I am sure that I remember reading on this forum that the people who live on the moon don’t like humans from earth encroaching on their territory and that is one of the reasons that there hasn’t been a manned moon landing for many decades. It will be interesting to see What the Chinese encounter in establishing a Moonbase.

That made me laugh. ("The people who live on the moon.") They may not be human 'people' exactly as we know them!

But the point is 100% valid. There are widespread reports that the US was 'warned off ' returning to the moon by one or more ET factions who have their own bases and activities there.

I tend to believe that's exactly what occurred. So yes, for sure, it'll be interesting to see how the Chinese mission fares, and whether it'll be 'permitted' to be successful.

An interesting part out of Dany Jones interview with Jason Jorjani, titled "Nuclear War on Mars, Time Traveling Nazis & The Techno Apocalypse" is the following related thing:

There was a we watched this interview multiple times on previous podcasts where there is
I think it's the head of NASA is being talked.
He's being interviewed in front of the Senate.
And they're talking about China.
How they had a plan to map or explore the dark side of the moon or whatever.
And they asked him, like, if they if we plan on doing it, too, and he goes, no,
we're not interested in doing that.
We have no interest in the dark side.
What I find profoundly disturbing about that is that humiliation is the worst thing in
Chinese culture.
The worst thing.
OK, so the Chinese are not about to go up to the moon and have their asses handed to
them.
Moreover, the Chinese are going to the moon in collaboration and cooperation with the
Russians.
The Chinese and the Russians plan to build a space station that orbits the moon and then
send astronauts from the space station down to the surface of the moon.
Right.
If there's that degree of cooperation between Russia and China on the moon, it means the
Soviet dossier has been handed over to the Chinese and Soviet dossier, the Soviet dossier
on the moon.
Oh, OK.
OK.
What's in that?
Right.
Everything the Americans encountered on the moon, which is why the Soviets never went
to the moon.
Remember, we were competing with the Soviet Union to go to the moon.
Yeah.
Why is it that we went up there and then all the Soviets just decided to cancel their moon
program?
No, they knew.
Of course they knew.
They knew.
And also there were discussions in the Soviet Union at that time that, OK, if America makes
it to the moon first, we'll go to Mars first.
They figured it out.
Neither are for the taking.
Neither the moon nor Mars.
So what's really disturbing about the Chinese initiative is that if the Chinese of all
people are planning to go up there and I don't know, if not colonize, at least do some
scientific research or whatever.
Right.
It means they've gotten clearance.
From the people that are there.
That's right.
That's right.
Now, what?
And notice how the balance of power is shifting in the world toward China.
Is it really?
It is.
People have different opinions online.
I don't know what to believe.
Look, I mean, it has been.
Now, whether that can be reversed is another question.
But.
If you wanted to manage a global totalitarian state.
Yes.
With ubiquitous surveillance and an extremely technocratic form of government with little
personal freedom.
Right.
A control society on a global scale.
The Chinese will be the optimal people to put in charge for that.
Yeah.
Because it fits the values of Confucianism.
Yes.
OK, so if someone on the moon, potentially also on Mars, wants to impose a totalitarian
world government on Earth, they're not going to make a deal with the United States.
They're going to make a deal with China.
That's what I find most disturbing about Chinese plans to go to the moon.
I actually don't think we would even be going back there if it weren't for the fact
that Chinese already are.
Yeah, but.
OK, maybe.
But who would they who would they make the deal with in the United States?
That's the thing.
There's there's two parts of the United States.
There's the idealistic view of the United States, and then there's the real people
who are running the show behind the scenes in United States.
And they probably are very envious of China's totalitarian surveillance state that they
live under.
So.
You know, I'm not sure it's very easy to make these kinds of moral judgments.
If I were in Lockheed.
At a high level with security clearance to the special programs that are dealing with
zero point energy, electro-gravitic drives.
Yeah.
I'm not so sure that considering the kind of society we have in this country, let alone
in the world at large, I would publicly disclose that technology.
I mean, we talked we talked about this last time, I think the weaponization implications
implications and dual use potential of such technology is extremely socially destabilizing.
So the thing is, with China, you can manage technology and control information in that
way.
Yes, totally.
Based on the ideals of the Bill of Rights and the United States Constitution, you can't.
It makes it way harder.
Right.
So they have a good negotiating partner in China.
Oh, yes, that that makes a ton of sense.
So even if you're in Lockheed, you're you know, you're stuck behind all these walls of
classification and these security oaths that you've taken.
You might still believe in the ideals of the Bill of Rights, and you might not be ready
to sell out, you know, at least the American citizenry to a foreign power or an alien power
that intends to subjugate the planet and, you know, subject us to a global tyranny.
So, yeah, I'm not convinced that even people in the deepest strata of the deep state
are so, how can I put it, callous and nihilistic and self-serving that they would make a deal
with people who want tyranny over to the planet.
In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if for a long time they've kept these technologies
close to the chest in order to develop some kind of a deterrence capability or to approach
parity, technological and military parity.
With what?
With them?
With, yeah, with the people on the moon.

[Ravenlocke]

Posted by leavesoftrees (here)

Russia is pushing ahead with plans to install a nuclear power plant on the surface of the Moon for a joint Russo-Chinese lunar project

I thought NPPs need an enormous quantity of water. Where is that going to come from?

Recently according to chinese news media China has come up with and built a thorium generator that doesn’t use Uranium nor require water for cooling, and also much less waste.

https://futurism.com/china-thorium-nuclear-power

China Fires Up World's First Thorium-Powered Nuclear Reactor
“Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That’s when the tortoise seizes its chance.”

Months after satellites picked up a massive nuclear fusion facility in China's Sichuan province, the country's nuclear industry has blown the lid off fission tech.

During a private meeting earlier this month, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed the successful operation of a thorium-powered nuclear reactor located in the Gobi Desert. The team had achieved "full-power operation" last June, according to South China Morning Post, and recently succeeded in reloading the reactor while it was powered up — a world first.

It's a major milestone for nuclear power. Thorium offers a more accessible but less weaponizable alternative to uranium, according to the World Nuclear Association, which notes that "thorium-based power reactor fuels would be a poor source for fissile material usable in the illicit manufacture of an explosive device."

The Gobi Desert reactor is a two megawatt research unit engineered to use molten salt as fuel carrier and coolant. A molten salt reactor (MSR) theoretically carries far less risk in the event of a meltdown compared to water-based systems, as salts can carry greater loads of thermal energy at much lower pressure.

In fact, a "meltdown" is basically a non-factor for these systems — the fuel is already molten.

A report sponsored by the US government on MSRs notes that a "possible advantage of the MSR is that the fuel is subject to freezing," so "upon breach of a vessel or pipe... the fuel will disperse, and thus increase its cooling geometry, until it reaches a freezing configuration and thus will be confined to that location and configuration." Basically, imagine lava rolling slowly down a mountain as the air cools it back into rock, compared to a spectacular steam explosion like the incident at Chernobyl.

Curiously, MSRs are nothing new. They had their day in the US back in the late 1940s and early 50s, when American cold warriors dumped nearly $1 billion into developing a nuclear-powered stealth bomber. Congress halted research on thorium-fueled airplanes back in 1961, and uranium more or less became the gold standard, due in no small part to its military potential.

Assumed obsolete, the US' MSR research has since been made public, forming the foundation of the Gobi Desert team's work.

"The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor," said the project's chief scientist Xu Hongjie. "Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That’s when the tortoise seizes its chance."


Text:
THIS IS HUGE

We are on the brink of limitless energy supply >

China’s vast thorium reserves could unlock nearly unlimited nuclear energy, according to a declassified report. Thorium, a silver-colored metal, produces 200 times more energy than uranium and could power ships and nations without refueling. China’s thorium reserves, found in mining waste and rich zones across the country, far exceed previous estimates. For instance, five years of mining waste from Inner Mongolia’s Bayan Obo complex could meet U.S. household energy needs for over 1,000 years.

Thorium molten-salt reactors (TMSRs) are compact, meltdown-proof, and produce minimal long-lived radioactive waste. China is building the world’s first TMSR power plant in the Gobi Desert, set to generate 10 megawatts by 2029. Thorium’s potential extends to nuclear-powered ships and lunar bases, with China already designing a thorium-powered container ship.

However, challenges remain, including energy-intensive extraction processes and concerns about weaponization. Despite these hurdles, thorium could revolutionize global energy, reduce fossil fuel reliance, and position China as a leader in clean energy innovation. The exact size of China’s thorium reserves remains classified, but the findings suggest a transformative energy future.

https://x.com/angeloinchina/status/1896216319080718394

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
China discovers enough thorium reserves to power the country for 60,000 years — South China Morning Post

The Inner Mongolia region is estimated to have one million tons of thorium, vastly exceeding China's current uranium reserves

https://x.com/RT_com/status/1895490719038706022

Text:

CONFIRMED: China built and has brought to full power the world's first-ever thorium-containing molten salt reactor, the TMSR-LF1. Initial criticality occurred on Oct 11, 2023. Full power on June 17, 2024. Pa-233 from thorium was detected Oct 8, 2024.

It's the first MSR to run since the US shut down its MSRE in 1969, which ran on enriched U-235 and then later on thorium-derived U-233.

Commercial-scale thorium-fueled reactors have run in the past, (Indian Point 1, Shippingport, THTR), but this is the first MSR to do so.

(I had heard rumors that it ran already but haven't seen it confirmed until now)

https://x.com/whatisnuclear/status/1903067742934069614

[Vicus]

Chinese Astronauts Perform First Spacewalk of Shenzhou-20 Mission _ yesterday



The crew was launched into space in April and will remain in orbit for about six months.

On Thursday, astronauts from China’s Shenzhou-20 mission conducted their first extravehicular activity outside the Tiangong space station.

During the eight-hour operation, crewmembers Chen Dong and Chen Zhongrui exited the station via the Tianhe core module, while their teammate Wang Jie assisted from inside the station.

With the support of the station’s robotic arm and ground-based experts, the two astronauts installed a space debris shielding device that had previously been transferred via the cargo airlock. They also performed inspection and maintenance tasks on external equipment.

This marked the first time since the start of Tiangong’s application and development phase that astronauts exited through the core module’s node port. It was also the first instance in which a crewed spacewalk was directly coordinated with a prior cargo delivery.

Veteran astronaut Chen Dong, who previously took part in the Shenzhou-11 and Shenzhou-14 missions, returned to spacewalking after a two-year hiatus. For Chen Zhongrui, a first-time astronaut, it was his debut extravehicular activity.

The Shenzhou-20 crew was launched into space in April from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and will remain in orbit for about six months. During their mission, the three astronauts will conduct scientific experiments, technical tests and additional spacewalks.

The Tiangong space station orbits Earth at an altitude of about 400 kilometers and is designed to operate for at least 10 years. It is likely to become the only functioning space station in orbit if the U.S.-led International Space Station — which remains off-limits to China due to military restrictions — is retired as planned.

China has invested heavily in its space program, successfully landing the Chang’e 4 probe on the far side of the Moon for the first time. It is also working with Russia and other countries to build a scientific research base at the Moon’s south pole.

China successfully launched the manned spacecraft Shenzhou-20 on its way to the Tiangong station, a key mission of its space program. The Great March 2F carrier rocket was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, northwest of the Asian giant.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/chine...ou-20-mission/

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇷🇺🇨🇳⚛️ Russia and China Commit to Building the First Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon

On Thursday, barely noticed in the United States, the Russian space agency Roscosmos director Dmitry Bakanov and China's National Space Administration chief Zhang Ke jian released a technical protocol that would place a 50 MW fission-powered space station at the south-polar rim of Shackleton Crater by 2035.

The facility, financed jointly by Rosatom and China’s CNNC, is designed to provide uninterrupted power for the Sino-Russian International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) and, in later phases, for industrial processing of water ice into oxygen, hydrogen, and rocket propellant.

Bakanov’s Russia Day address said: “The Moon will host the first nuclear plant off Earth; it is the foundation for future bases.” Moscow and Beijing are not asking whether humanity should leave low-Earth orbit; they are publishing the construction schedule.

Why nuclear? Why can't humanity's expansion into the cosmos be supported just by solar panels and batteries?

The answer shatters decades of NGO-funded environmentalist sabotage. As Space Commune has reported: renewables are for show, but nuclear is for dough. Nuclear energy is a building block of the sovereign nation state.

No combination of solar arrays and batteries can bridge the 354-hour lunar night, let alone power electrolysis plants, regolith foundries, and pressurized habitats.
A compact fast-neutron reactor can. Rosatom will supply a modular sodium-cooled core derived from its RITM-200 marine units; CNNC will integrate Stirling generators developed for China’s Chang’e robotic program.

The project vindicates the thesis advanced half a century ago by Krafft Ehricke, the celebrated German-American engineer. His “Extraterrestrial Imperative” laid down three fundamental laws of astronautics:

1. Nobody and nothing under the natural laws of this universe impose any limitations on man except man himself.
2. Not only the Earth, but the entire Solar system, and as much of the universe as he can reach under the laws of nature, are man’s rightful field of activity.
3. By expanding through the Universe, man fulfills his destiny as an element of life, endowed with the power of reason and the wisdom of the moral law within himself.

To Ehricke, the Moon was “Earth’s seventh continent,” providentially placed three days away and rich in helium-3 for future fusion plants. A permanent, high-energy foothold there is not a curiosity; it is the moral pre-condition for moving industry off-planet and lifting material limits at home.

Predictably, the narrative against the peaceful use of nuclear energy in space has been written by Malthusian western environmental NGOs. Since at least 1989, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Earth First all protested against various American initiatives to use nuclear energy to get into space and power various modules and landers.

Russia and China propose a different outcome: use advanced technology to expand the human domain and, in doing so, raise the floor for everyone—the very definition of classical “common aims of mankind.”

For the United States and Europe the message is plain. Either re-embrace the Extraterrestrial Imperative that sent Apollo 17 to on the last crewed moon mission 1972, or watch the next great chapter of exploration as spectators.

https://x.com/SpaceCommune/status/1934296089047314792

[Jaak]

Tried to research it but could not find any details .
What kind of reactor they want to build on moon ? Tokamak ? Molten salt ? Thorium ? Boron-Hydrogen ? Plutonium ?
How they plan to relay the energy created there and to where and in what wavelength ? X-ray, microwave , UV or something else ?
How they are going to cool the reactor ? ( it is very hard to cool things in out of space ) . Maybe they want to direct the thermal energy to the moon ? Use the moon as heat conductor/radiator ?
Interesting stuff , would like to know more about it but cant find nothing.