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Are you aware of this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Lunar_Research_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Lunar_Research_S...

• dotnet00 2y ago
  Yes I am aware of it, but Russia has been talking about doing big stuff for decades now with mainly a rapidly decaying space industry to show for it, and none of the other partners are exactly notable space industry participants either. So it just looks like a way to appear to be competing with Artemis without having to actually put in the same kind of effort. I get the impression that it'll fall apart once Artemis starts doing crewed lunar landings and China will just have to do its own independent thing. Kind of like the initial claims about Russia participating in China's space station, where it turns out that Tiangong is in an orbit that Soyuz can't even reach from its current launch sites. Then Russia claimed to be building their own space station for post-ISS activities, only to later downgrade further into a station that is not always occupied. Put differently, it seems even less serious than when any US official uses 'sustainable' and 'SLS' in the same sentence.
  • T-A 2y ago
    I agree about China's partners. Russia may have some legacy technology to contribute, the others are lightweights. That aspect of the program is mainly about politics. The Chinese space program however looks serious enough. Some recent press: https://thediplomat.com/2023/10/long-march-9-rocket-will-be-a-game-changer-for-chinas-space-program/ https://thediplomat.com/2023/10/long-march-9-rocket-will-be-... https://www.space.com/china-names-spacecraft-astronaut-moon-missions https://www.space.com/china-names-spacecraft-astronaut-moon-... https://spacenews.com/china-to-debut-large-reusable-rockets-in-2025-and-2026/ https://spacenews.com/china-to-debut-large-reusable-rockets-...
    • dotnet00 2y ago
      Those are much more convincing about their seriousness, thanks!