The head of the British Space Command predicted China's mining in space «in our lifetime»
PRC will start mining on the moon and asteroids in the coming decades. This was stated in an interview with the Times newspaper by the head of the British Space Command, Paul Godfrey.
He recalled that Chinese astronauts have already delivered samples of lunar soil to Earth and plan to continue moving in this direction. Recently, a White Book was published in Beijing, in which information about the most important minerals on the Earth's satellite was published. Godfrey emphasized that mining in space will become a reality «in our lifetime».
China started a lunar sounding program called Chang'e in 2007; then the first Chinese lunar satellite was launched. In 2019, the PRC landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon for the first time.
At the end of 2022, the Chang'e-5 probe brought 1,731 grams of lunar soil to Earth. China became the third state in the world after the USA and the USSR, which was able to complete this task.