China’s space agency has made public that researchers from the US and allied countries will be given access to lunar samples gathered by its Chang’e missions. This is a major milestone in global collaboration in space exploration, with universities like Brown University and State University of New York at Stony Brook, both sponsored by NASA, being among the seven universities allowed to study the lunar rocks brought back by China’s Chang’e 5 mission in 2020.
Shan Zhongde, director of China’s National Space Administration (CNSA), reiterated that the moon samples were “a shared treasure for all mankind” and declared China’s increasing dedication to open cooperation in space exploration. “I think China’s circle of friends in space will keep expanding,” Shan further stated, underscoring the nation’s more active role in global space exchange.
While China opens the world to its moon discoveries, Chinese scientists are still barred from reaching NASA’s lunar samples owing to legislation barring co-operation between the two countries. This notwithstanding, China’s sharing of resources mirrors a greater open policy in space diplomacy by the country as opposed to current American space isolationism.
The cooperation is extended to a number of international institutions, such as the University of Cologne in Germany, Osaka University in Japan, and the Open University in the UK, who will also be permitted to study the lunar samples. The exchange, following China’s Chang’e 6 mission bringing back far-side Moon rocks in 2021, is regarded as a symbolic act of peaceful cooperation in the midst of the current geopolitical tensions between the US and China.
In spite of trade tensions, including the latest US tariffs on Chinese imports, China’s space program maintains that lunar exploration must cross political frontiers and serve all of humanity’s scientific advances.
