NASA has talked about doing its own form of in situ lunar habitation. The Chinese have actually tested the technology—albeit only a rudimentary version.
While the United States has placed a former reality TV star in charge—really!—of NASA, with a mission to gut the vital manned spaceflight program there, the Chinese continue their long march towards conquest of the moon.
A key aspect of controlling the moon involves developing the technology to make sustaining human life on that harsh alien domain possible. If a lunar colony must continually be resupplied from Earth, 240,000 miles away, it is technically and financially infeasible to operate—explaining why the United States, Russia, and China have never tried to establish a permanent presence there in earnest.
Now, however, Chinese scientists claim that they have developed a method for producing oxygen, water, and rocket fuel from the lunar dust. Of course, American scientists have, over the years, theorized that this could be done. But, like so many things that the Americans have done with their space policy, they talked a big game but never implemented their grand designs. Could China do better?
Understanding China’s Space Ambitions
In 2003, the first Chinese “taikonaut”—China’s word for astronaut, just as Russians described theirs as “cosmonauts”—made China’s first spacewalk in orbit. Since that time, Beijing has developed increasingly advanced rockets. They have a sophisticated modular space station in orbit that will outlast the US-led International Space Station (ISS) by decades. What’s more, China’s political elite have prioritized space in a way that the American political elite appears utterly incapable of doing.
So, even as the Americans rest on their laurels as today’s dominant space power, China is pushing forward at breakneck speed to not only catch up with the Americans in orbit—but to outfly them to the moon.
The Moon Is Essential for Space Dominance
Why is the moon so important?
Think geostrategy. In warfare, taking the high ground has given militaries great advantages over their rivals. The orbits above the Earth are the immediate high ground. Beyond those orbits, though, is even higher ground—the tidally-locked Lagrange Points beyond GEO, which serve as the waypoint between the Earth’s orbit and that of the moon, and then the moon itself.
If one zooms out from the Earth and considers both the Earth and its satellite, the moon, one will see that they form an essential partnership. Therefore, the ultimate high ground over planet Earth is actually the lunar surface.
And if one country can control the moon, it can dominate the Earth—and its orbits—below. This is to say nothing of the massive bonanza waiting to be had for the country that comes to mine the bountiful rare earth minerals on the lunar surface.
Indeed, China’s proclaimed new capability to convert lunar dust into water, rocket fuel, and oxygen will be the early proof of concept for Chinese miners looking to eventually mine the Helium-3 and other important minerals on the moon. But the technology must be perfected first; if manned presence on the moon cannot be sustained locally, then the entire endeavor will inevitably be a failure.
To be clear, if China gets a lunar colony before the Americans do, they will not only be able to stake out the best real estate both for habitation, but also for mining operations—and, concomitantly, they will be able to deny their American rivals access to these lucrative areas.
Of course, the Outer Space Treaty explicitly forbids territorial claims in space. But when push comes to shove, this treaty is not likely to obstruct Beijing’s ambitions. Indeed, the goal of space denial, if not outright space control, has already been posited by Ye Peijian, the head of China’s lunar program. In 2019, Ye likened China’s approach to the moon to its handling of the South China Sea (SCS), where Beijing declared control over a vast swath of the ocean, then built artificial islands to back it up—presenting the flagrant violation of international law to the world as a fait accompli. It is easy to imagine China pursuing a similar strategy in space.
How a Lunar Colony Could Survive on the Moon
Minerals such as ilmenite, oxides of silicon, aluminum, iron, and titanium, as well as trace amounts of hydrogen implanted by solar wind over the course of millions of years, are all found within the lunar regolith.
At the lunar polar regions, it is believed there is potentially water ice to be harvested. Indeed, both China and the United States have competing plans to establish permanent settlements on the lunar south pole for this very reason. Unlike the moon’s north pole, its south pole is relatively protected from the harsh radiation of the sun, making it a desirable place for a base.
China’s Chang’e-5 mission already demonstrated on a small scale how the Chinese will go about the creation of oxygen, water, and rocket fuel from in situ lunar resources. During that previous mission, China used concentrated sunlight to extract water vapor from regolith and then converted it into oxygen and fuel components. This process is highly efficient: it relies on abundant lunar sunlight, and could recycle the exhaled CO2 emissions of China’s taikonauts on the moon.
Using mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight, China heats up the captured regolith to around 482 degrees Fahrenheit. This triggers photothermal catalysis, releasing trapped water as vapor from the minerals. In the same chamber, the water vapor reacts with the CO2 under the heat and analysis (facilitated by the regolith’s inherent iron compounds), producing Oxygen (O2), hydrogen (H2), and carbon monoxide (CO) over several hours.
Chinese scientists then collect the gases (O2 for breathing or oxidizer H2 and CO for fuel precursors). Water vapor can be condensed into liquid water if not fully converted.
America is Losing the Race for the Moon
NASA has talked about doing its own form of in situ lunar habitation, of course. But the Chinese have actually tested a rudimentary version of the technology. And, if there is one thing that China is skilled at, it is rapidly scaling projects like this while the Americans are still conducting the environmental impact assessment.
The race for space dominance is unfolding at breakneck speed before our eyes. Technology and techniques, such as the kind that the Chinese are talking about, will prove decisive in determining which side wins the new space race. Right now, it is China’s race to lose.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a contributor at Popular Mechanics, who consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Shutterstock / Dotted Yeti.
