A CHINESE lunar exploration team plans to conduct research on a lunar surface greenhouse, according to Wang Qiong, a senior space engineer with the China National Space Administration (CNSA), during a press conference in Beijing last week.

By utilizing lunar surface construction technologies, they hope to build a greenhouse that will enable rovers and robots on the moon to better and more easily endure the harsh conditions of the lunar night, said Wang, a researcher at the CNSA’s Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center.

Lasting 14 days and with temperatures dropping to minus 200 degrees Celsius, the lunar night poses severe challenges. Wang believes that as the lunar exploration moves toward long-term stays on the moon, such a greenhouse on the lunar surface will prove useful.

According to Wang, also deputy chief designer of the Chang’e-6 mission, by studying the samples returned by Chang’e-6, Chinese scientists have made a series of major scientific breakthroughs, revealing for the first time the evolutionary history of the lunar far side.

On June 25, 2024, the returner of the Chang’e-6 probe made a landing in North China, bringing back 1,935.3 grams of samples from the far side of the moon, the first time in human history.

“We have also carried out fruitful international cooperation,” he said, adding that the Chang’e-6 mission carried a CubeSat of Pakistan and three scientific payloads from France, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Italy, all of which have achieved exploration results exceeding expectations.

(Xinhua)