China Working on Building a Manned Radar Station on the Moon

The Chinese government has commissioned a group of scientists to look into building a manned radar station on the moon.

What began earlier this year with a 16 million yuan ($2.4 million USD) grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China has now moved one step closer to reality as more scientists have joined the project and a two-day meeting was held just last month.

The facility would be used for defense monitoring and scientific research, and South China Morning Post reported that the base’s powerful radar antenna array at least 50 metres high “could also produce more powerful and clearer images of earth as the high-frequency microwaves emitted by the radar station could not only penetrate cloud, but also the earth’s surface, allowing it to monitor areas on land, under the sea and underground.”

China would also be building a solar or nuclear power plant on the moon to supply the station with the amount of power needed to generate such high intensity radio beams.

One thing you will not find throughout the entire article is the word “first”.

Typically when China does something first, they like to make sure everyone knows it. Curiously, not this time. Nowhere in the article about this project does it mention anything about “In a first, China to build manned radar base on the moon” or “First of its kind, China moon radar base”.

Here are a few headlines real quick to give you a basic idea:

China to Conduct World’s First Gene Editing Trial on Humans
China Builds First Overseas Military Outpost
China Launches First Quantum Satellite

But, even in China’s own government-run newspapers, no “China to Build FIRST Manned Radar Station on the Moon”?

Just… “China to Build Manned Radar Station on the Moon”?

Strange, huh?

And you’ve got to wonder what other governments will have to say about this plan. Just consider how contentious things are regarding China’s man-made island situation in the The South China Sea… and that’s here on planet Earth.