China plans three missions to the Moon after discovering a new lunar mineral that may be a future energy source

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After discovering a new lunar mineral that could be an energy source in the future, China is planning to launch three missions to the moon.

The space race between China and the US is heating up after Beijing's National Space Administration got the go-ahead to send three astronauts to the moon over the next decade. The news was reported by a news agency.

According to a Chinese state-controlled newspaper, China became the third country to discover a new lunar mineral called Changesite-(Y).

China's Chang'e-5 mission retrieved samples from the moon in 2020 and it has been described as a "phosphate mineral in columnar crystal". The mineral has the potential to be a future source ofenergy.

The Artemis I moon mission was postponed for a second time after the discovery.

NASA is looking at the moon's south pole where China and Russia plan to build a research station.

China has built a space station, launched a number of missions to collect moon samples, and put a rover on Mars in order to compete with NASA.

The first samples from another planet were brought back to Earth in 1969 by the US Apollo 11 mission.

The National Space Administration was contacted.