NASA worried that China's about to take over the Moon

China revealed its goals to dominate the Moon - and NASA officials are worried.

China has been forthcoming about its ambitions to explore outer space.

One plan includes sending a crewed mission to build a lunar base on the Moon.

A part of the plan is also to create a system for identifying and demolishing asteroids heading for the Earth.

Particularly, as noted by AS, China hopes to use the Moon as a "shield" in its efforts to protect the planet from asteroid impacts.

It wants to put three satellites in orbit around the Moon, accompanied by built-in weapons systems that would be used to either destroy the asteroids or push them out of an Earth-bound path.

Two telescopes would also be built at the poles of Earth's satellite, all to survey the sky.

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This would also work together with a ground-based early warning network to find threatening asteroids.

China wants to carry out a "crewed mission" to the Moon in the next five years, and in that period, it will continue to focus on exploring the poles of the satellite.

This is also reportedly not sitting well with NASA officials, who have expressed fears that China has ulterior motives.

"We must be very worried that China is going to land on the Moon and say: now it is ours, and you stay out," NASA director Bill Nelson said earlier this month.

The Chinese government didn't take Nelson's sentiments too well, noting that the accusations pose "a great threat" to the peaceful use of space.

The country also argued that its space exploration is always for searching for legitimate technology, social, scientific, technological objectives and much more.

"The system will have the ability to intercept incoming asteroids from all directions and can form a defense circle approximately twice the distance between the Moon and Earth," said Wu Weiren, the chief designer of the Lunar Exploration Program of China, in a report published in the journal Scientia Sinica Informationis.

China also has plans to work alongside Russia to build its own lunar base together by 2035.

Growing tensions between NASA and Russia's Roscosmos have also escalated after Russia recently quit the International Space Station (ISS).

"The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made," said Yuri Borisov, the new head of Roscosmos.

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