China to hear pitches from Nasa scientist, other researchers, to study Chang’e 5 lunar samples

Chinese space agency will listen to international proposals later this month to borrow the material for research

Nasa proposal received rare approval from US Congress to bypass law banning collaboration with China

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People view lunar samples brought back by China’s Chang’e 5 probe at the National Museum of China in Beijing in 2021. Some of those samples will be loaned to scientists from other countries. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 11:00pm, 10 Apr 2024

China’s space agency has invited 10 scientists from the US, Europe and Asia to pitch their plans in person to study lunar samples brought back to Earth by China’s Chang’e 5 moon mission.

The pitches will be heard at a review meeting at the China University of Geosciences’ Nanwangshan campus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on April 26, with applicants encouraged to attend the meeting in person, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

Each applicant will have 15 minutes to make a presentation and take questions from the review committee, CNSA said on its website on Tuesday, adding that online participation was also acceptable.

Ryan Zeigler, a lunar geochemist and sample curator for Nasa’s Apollo missions at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, will be the second person to present a submission, according to the meeting agenda.

If Zeigler’s pitch is accepted, it would be a rare example of high-level US-China space cooperation – Nasa-funded scientists have been forbidden to collaborate with China under a US law known as the Wolf Amendment, unless otherwise approved by the Congress.

China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft touched down on the moon in 2020 in a region known as the Ocean of Storms and sent back 1.73kg (3.8lbs) of lunar material to Earth. The samples distributed to Chinese researchers were very different and much younger compared to the material collected by the US Apollo missions five decades earlier.

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China to hear pitches from Nasa scientist, other researchers, to study Chang’e 5 lunar samples

Chinese space agency will listen to international proposals later this month to borrow the material for research Nasa proposal received rare approval from US Congress to bypass law banning collaboration with China

Chinese space agency will listen to international proposals later this month to borrow the material for research

Nasa proposal received rare approval from US Congress to bypass law banning collaboration with China