China Plans to Build Lunar Bases with Moon Soil by 2030s

China plans to start building a lunar base using soil from the moon in five years, with a team designing a robot named "Chinese Super Masons" to make bricks out of lunar soil. The robot will be launched during China's Chang'e-8 mission around 2028, and the country is aiming to retrieve the world's first soil sample from the far side of the moon in a mission around 2025. The country has stated that it wants its astronauts to stay on the moon for long periods once it establishes a lunar research station.