As of: March 7, 2024, 1:04 p.m
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China also wants to monitor the moon.
© M. Litzka/DALL·E (AI-generated)
Hundreds of millions of cameras on Earth are already monitoring the everyday lives of Chinese people.
Now Beijing wants to install the “Skynet” system on the moon.
The world is not enough: China apparently wants to install its huge “Skynet” surveillance system on the moon to ensure the security of the Chinese space station planned there.
This is reported by the
South China Morning Post
, citing a specialist article that
appeared in the magazine
Acta Optica Sinica at the end of February.
“The construction and operation of the optical monitoring system for the (international) lunar research station can draw on the successful experiences ... of the Chinese Skynet project,” says the article, which was written by scientists from the Chinese space agency CNSA, among others.
A network of cameras weighing just 100 grams each is planned, which can also take infrared images and enable a 360-degree panoramic view.
Using artificial intelligence, the cameras should be able to “independently identify, locate, track and target suspicious targets,” the paper says.
As soon as “anomalies” are detected, the system will “immediately generate alarm signals and initiate appropriate response measures.”
“Skynet” in China: Hundreds of millions of cameras monitor everyday life
The People's Republic has been successfully using the “Skynet” (Chinese: “Tianwang”) system on Earth for years.
The moon counterpart should now explicitly build on the knowledge gained there.
In China, an estimated 600 million cameras monitor everyday life in public spaces, primarily in provinces such as Tibet and Xinjiang, but also in cities large and small throughout the rest of the country.
While the government hopes this will increase security, human rights activists warn against total control of citizens.
The system could also be used to track down and arrest opponents of the Communist Party.
China already operates the Tiangong space station and also wants to build a station on the moon.
This will have a diameter of more than six kilometers and consist of several modules, including a power plant and a command center (Russia is currently planning a nuclear power plant on the moon together with China).
Last year, China announced that it would put astronauts on the moon for the first time in 2030.
The People's Republic is one of only five countries in the world that have managed a soft landing on Earth's satellite with a lunar vehicle.
China first achieved this milestone in December 2013 when the Chang'e 3 probe touched down on the moon.
Previously only the USA and the Soviet Union had succeeded in this;
India followed in 2023, and Japan also managed a soft moon landing in January of this year.
(sh)