The key to building the future lunar research station lies in three pillars: in-situ lunar resource acquisition, cluster-enabled collaborative intelligent manufacturing and fully autonomous intelligent operations, said Chen Jie, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Party secretary of Harbin Institute of Technology, at a symposium held at Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) on Monday.

China will carry out the first manned landing on the moon before 2030 and complete the construction of the basic model for the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), according to the master plan of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The moon has become a new frontier for global technological competition and cooperation. Against this backdrop, multiple academicians and experts shared their insights into technology needed for building a base at the ILRS at the symposium. 

The DSEL, which was co-founded by the CNSA and Anhui provincial government, has developed a prototype of an in-situ lunar soil 3D printing system. Dubbed the "lunar soil brick-maker," the in-situ lunar soil 3D printing system works by using concentrated solar energy to melt lunar soil at high temperatures and form bricks.

According to the lab, combined with 3D printing technology, the system can print lunar regolith into structurally solid bricks or components of any desired shape. Whether printing it into bricks or drawing it into fibers, the goal is to transform the moon's most abundant surface material — lunar regolith — into usable engineering materials," said Shi Pingyan, chief engineer of the DSEL. 

Drawing on authentic lunar soil samples collected by the Chang'e-5 probe, a research team from Shanghai-based Donghua University has successfully fabricated ultra-fine continuous lunar regolith fibers - with diameters of only 10 to 20 microns - in a laboratory setting, using high-temperature melting and vacuum drawing techniques. 

Zhu Meifang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor at Donghua University, said that the team has successfully developed automated fiber-forming equipment adapted to moon's high-vacuum and low-gravity environment, opening new possibilities for future in-situ manufacturing of composite materials on the lunar surface.

Exploring multiple technical routes in parallel is aimed at addressing the harsh challenges of the moon's extreme environment and finding the optimal solution. The lunar surface presents a complex environment characterized by extreme temperature differences, high vacuum, strong radiation and charged lunar dust. Any manufacturing equipment must first solve the challenge of long-term reliable operation, according to the DSEL. 

Moreover, the construction of a future lunar base cannot be accomplished by a single device; it requires collaborative operations among heterogeneous robot clusters, the laboratory added.

Chen outlined a vision of a future lunar construction site: Survey robots conducting mapping; transport robots moving lunar regolith; large 3D printing robots stacking primary structural components; and dexterous assembly robots performing high-precision assembly tasks. "A key to realizing this vision is to endow lunar unmanned equipment clusters with 'swarm intelligence,'" Chen said. 

According to Chen, this requires overcoming a series of core technological challenges, including reliable long-distance communication on the lunar surface, high-precision collaborative positioning, intelligent planning for heterogeneous unmanned clusters, and autonomous control, enabling different unmanned devices to operate collaboratively as an organic whole — autonomously, intelligently and efficiently.

China initiated the ILRS, a scientific experimental facility consisting of sections on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit. It is projected to be built in two phases: a basic model to be built by 2035 in the lunar south pole region, and an extended model to be built in the 2040s, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

As of April 2025, a total of 17 countries and international organizations, along with more than 50 international research institutions, have joined the ILRS, Xinhua reported.