China revealed its plan to create a permanently manned radar station on the moon to monitor Earth.

A feasibility study for the proposed project, which would cost up to 16 million yuan ($2.4 million), is being funded by China's National Natural Science Foundation. It will involve a 50-meter-high radar that has the ability view larger areas of Earth compared to conventional satellites.

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While it could become a useful tool for scientific research and military surveillance, the proposed proy has already received criticisms, with one Chinese scientist denouncing it as "a lunatic idea."

The scientists told the South China Morning Post that the cost would be "higher than filling the sky with a constellation of spy satellites" that are able to "do the same job at only a fraction of the cost."

The idea was introduced by Professor Guo Huadong, a radar expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a research paper in 2013.

He said that the radar would produce 1.4 gigabytes of data per second, way better than the current long-distance space communications. Furthermore, it will also be used to monitor extreme weather, earthquakes, crop production, and the polar ice caps, Huffington Post reported.

Meanwhile, Professor Zhou Yiguo, a radar technology researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Electronics, said that "Either the radar has to be extremely powerful, or the antenna extremely large, otherwise it won't be able to pick up the radio waves bouncing back from the Earth."

"It is an important subject of research, but whether its advantage over satellite constellations can adjust the high cost and risk will need careful evaluation," he added.

China is not the only country considering the idea of putting up a manned lunar base. Other countries like the United States and Russia have allegedly been exploring the possibility of an extra-terrestrial habitat, Newsweek reported.

TagsSpace, china, moon, lunar base, radar station