FPI / January 16, 2026
By Richard Fisher
On Jan. 4, 2026, Chinese state media reported that a group of 28 Chinese astronauts had conducted a training program in which smaller groups of astronauts would spend six days and five nights training in underground caves in the Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China.
The purpose was to match conditions that the astronauts would face in space and on the Moon, this time conducting diverse space-related tasks in underground isolation in difficult 8-degree Celsius (46-degree Fahrenheit) temperatures and near 99 percent humidity.
Wu Bin of the China Astronaut Research and Training Center told Chinese television, “We utilize the natural cave environment to enhance astronauts’ capabilities in handling hazardous situations, team collaboration, scientific literacy and research skills, emergency decision-making, physical endurance, and psychological resilience in extreme conditions.”
However, the cave-based training of Chinese astronauts also recalls that China has seriously researched the more specific objective of building underground bases on the Moon, utilizing naturally occurring underground Lava Tubes.
In addition to providing natural protection from solar radiation, Chinese researchers have noted that while the surface temperature of the Moon is -117 to -173 degrees Celcius (-242 to -342-degrees F), the temperature in an underground Lava Tume is -17 to -43°C (-62 to -109 degrees F), helping keep the temperature of a habitation compartment at about 25-degrees Celcius (77-degrees F).
A Sept. 25, 2023 report in state media Xinhua noted that Zhang Chongfeng from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, also the vice chief designer of China’s Shenzhou series of manned spacecraft and lunar landers, had been researching the use of Lava Tubes for future Moon Bases.
This Xinhua report further noted that “Chinese researchers have chosen lunar lava tubes at Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare Fecunditatis as the primary exploration targets” and had devised the use of a “robotic mobile system of feet or wheeled feet” to explore and begin construction in the Lava Tubes.
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