China wants to send two taikonauts to the surface of the moon by 2030. This is seen as an effort to show the progress of China's aerospace technology after they became the first country to successfully land a space probe on the surface of the far side of the moon. Missions to the moon are still a long way off, but last week China unveiled a design for the suit that astronauts will use to reach the lunar surface.
In terms of design, it is similar to the design of NASA's Apollo mission astronaut suit from the 60s. The suit is designed to protect astronauts from radiation as well as the extreme temperature of the lunar surface which reaches 120 °C during the day before plunging to -130 °C. At the same time it still needs to be flexible enough to allow astronauts to carry out missions without any hindrance to movement. With the suit already on display, the China National Space Agency (CNSA) is hosting a naming contest open to the public.
Like the Apollo Mission, the Chinese mission will carry three astronauts using the Mengzhou spacecraft. Upon arrival at the moon, the Lanyue landing capsule will separate from the Megzhou to carry two astronauts to the lunar surface. After performing a mission for several hours, two astronauts will return to earth.
In addition to China, the United States, Russia, India and Japan also want to send humans to the surface instead. NASA's Artemis mission is currently delayed due to Starship delays. The race to get back to the moon is happening because all the world's superpowers want to build colonies that can then be used to launch missions to Mars and explore the rest of the nearest solar system.