China selects global payloads and opens lunar samples to foreign scientists

China selects global payloads and opens lunar samples to foreign scientists
by Simon Mansfield
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 24, 2025

China has announced the selection of 10 international payloads for its upcoming Chang'e 8 lunar mission, underscoring its commitment to global collaboration in space science. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) revealed that the chosen experiments span 11 nations and regions, including a specialized project from the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems.

Among the selected projects are a multifunctional robot created by teams from two Hong Kong universities, a smart lunar rover developed by Middle East Technical University in Turkiye, and a dual-nation imaging system co-designed by Bahrain and Egypt. Other contributions include an electric potential sensor provided by Iran's space agency.

CNSA Administrator Shan Zhongde emphasized the strategic goal of leveraging international cooperation to drive scientific innovation and technological progress in lunar exploration. "We aim to generate valuable knowledge and engineering advances through these partnerships for the benefit of all humanity," he stated.

Scheduled to lift off around 2029, the Chang'e 8 mission will head for the Leibniz-Beta Plateau near the moon's south pole. It will follow the Chang'e 7 mission and will test technologies essential for using lunar resources in situ. Together, these missions are paving the way toward the proposed International Lunar Research Station.

The CNSA had opened 200 kilograms of Chang'e 8 payload space for foreign participation in late 2023. From 41 proposals submitted, 14 were shortlisted and ultimately refined to 10 approved experiments after expert review based on scientific value, technical feasibility, and the diversity of international collaboration.

In a separate initiative promoting scientific openness, China also announced it has granted foreign researchers access to samples returned by the Chang'e 5 mission. At a Space Day ceremony in Shanghai, CNSA officials signed agreements with seven institutions from six countries to share the lunar material for analysis.

The recipients include the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (France), the University of Cologne (Germany), Osaka University (Japan), Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, The Open University (UK), and two US universities: Brown and Stony Brook.

CNSA began accepting international requests for Chang'e 5 lunar samples in November 2023. By year-end, it had received 24 applications seeking a total of 71 sample sets. Applications were assessed using China's official Lunar Samples Management Guidelines and international cooperation regulations.

"Chang'e (samples) belong not only to China but also to the world, representing a shared treasure for all humanity," Shan said at the ceremony. He reaffirmed China's commitment to peaceful, cooperative space exploration and encouraged continued global research based on China's lunar findings.

Launched in November 2020, Chang'e 5 marked China's most technically advanced lunar mission. It returned to Earth with 1,731 grams of lunar material on December 17, making China the third nation to retrieve samples from the moon, joining the ranks of the US and former Soviet Union.