According to the head of the US space agency Bill Nelson, Beijing intends to land a man on the moon soon
WASHINGTON, May 20. /TASS/. China is an extremely energetic rival for the United States in the field of space exploration, including the Moon and Mars, and Washington should step up its efforts to keep up in this race. This was stated on Wednesday at a hearing in the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, the head of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Bill Nelson.
The head of the US space agency showed the congressmen a picture sent by the Chinese space probe "Tianwen-1" from the surface of Mars. "We have been there [on Mars] since the mid-1970s, but they have demonstrated that they have the technology to travel millions and millions of miles, make a successful landing, and transmit [the images] back to Earth," he stated.
Nelson also cited the Moon as an example, noting that China is preparing to send three large rovers to the south pole of our planet's natural satellite at once, while the" much smaller lander "of the United States should" go to the south pole [of the Moon] in a couple of years." In addition, according to him, Beijing intends to land a man on the moon soon. "This should tell us to get down to business and step up our human landing program [on the moon]," Nelson said.
"We suddenly realize that we are not the masters of all this. And they are a very energetic opponent, " - said the head of NASA.
The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) on Wednesday distributed short fragments of video and photographs following the landing of the space probe "Tianwen-1" on the surface of Mars. The automatic interplanetary station "Tianwen-1" on May 15 made a successful landing on the surface of Mars. The rover that is part of it, which is called "Zhuzhong", will soon study the soil, ionosphere and climate of the planet. The period of its operation will be 92 earth days.
