Reading about all the cool stuff that is happening on the space exploration front gives me great joy and I have waited for this kind of speed and effort for all my life. Ever since I was a child I felt like we humans are not doing enough to explore the cosmos.

Now however, it seems like we are doing good. More than good actually. With private companies and government space agencies all focused at expanding the human race to other planets and moons, the space dream was never better, at least in my opinion.

We keep hearing about SpaceX and its achievements, as the media covers that really well and there is an almost fanfare like following for its launches and missions. The involvement of Elon Musk is definitely one of the reasons why.

Anyways, other agencies are doing a phenomenal job as well and the latest news comes out of China. It seems like they plan to be the leaders in space exploration and research with their numerous missions in the coming decade, one of which is establishing a moon base within the decade.

Moon Base

Right now, the only permanent presence of human beings in space is that on the International Space Station in the low Earth orbit. But in the coming decades, that is poised to change as we'll have humans living permanently on the Moon and Mars.

China for example, is planning to set up a scientific research base on the south pole of the Moon and that too by 2020. That's just about 10 years from now. It sure is a highly ambitious and optimistic goal in the face of tons of unsolved challenges regarding habitation on other worlds.

But China's plans don't end there. They're also looking to send more lunar probes this year, after already having sent a rover to the far side of the Moon in January. Also on the list is an uncrewed mission to Mars by 2020.

They also want to replace the International Space Station with one of their own, called Tiangong or 'Heavenly Palace', by 2022 as the ISS is set to retire in 2024. In fact, the process of building it could start as soon as next year. To top it all off, they are also planning to launch an asteroid exploration mission.