Washington: NASA is set to collaboratively work with China’s space agency for Moon exploration, to prepare for setting up a human colony on the lunar surface, as well as future missions to deep space. The US space agency held talks with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) last month to explore the possibility of observing a signature of the landing plume of lunar lander, Chang’e 4, which landed on the Moon earlier this month.
As NASA works toward its plan to sustainably return to the Moon, it will be critical to collaborate with both commercial and international partners along the way, the US space agency said. This approach will enable human expansion across the solar system and bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities, it said. NASA’s robotic lunar surface missions, which will begin as early as 2020, will focus on scientific understanding of lunar resources, and prepare the lunar surface for a sustained human presence, to include the use of lunar oxygen and hydrogen for future lunar vehicles.