China talking with European Space Agency about moon outpost

A senior official of the Chinese space agency has confirmed the bilateral talks. The rocket will launch its unmanned spacecraft on a mission to the moon later this year. ESA has already begun to develop 3D printing methods that could use lunar soil to manufacture various items, potentially reducing the cost of launching materials to space.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Hvistendahl said Beijing already had a "very ambitious moon program" in place. They were confirmed Wednesday (local time) by Pal Hvistendahl, a spokesman for the European Space Agency, or ESA. In fact, just about last week, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) sent the unmanned cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 on a mission to dock with China's now unoccupied space station Tiangong-2. On July 20, 1969, he was the second human being to set foot on the Moon, following mission commander Neil Armstrong.

"The future of space travel needs a new vision.Right now we have the Space Station as a common worldwide project, but it won't last forever", said Woerner.

China also plans to launch a mission to the dark side of the moon sometime next year, which would be the first of its kind in that region of the moon, collecting mineral samples for further analysis. The director general of the 22-member ESA, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, sees the proposed moonbase as having great potential for the two agencies.

While Europe, Russia, and the US have dominated space exploration, particularly the latter, China's entrance has been strong. Also, China can not have space collaboration with the United States as space cooperation with China has been excluded by the latter under a law passed in 2011.

They were excluded from the International Space Station due to United States legislation banning such cooperation and concern over their program's strong links to the military. The egg-shaped orbit will be away by 1,500 km to 70,000 km (930 miles to 44,000 miles) from the moon. President Donald Trump announced plans in February to return astronauts to the moon's orbit in 2019.

Both modules will be backed with four docking ports with mutual connections so that they can receive visiting spacecraft.