HELSINKI — China has accepted a number of international applications to borrow small portions of moon samples collected by its Chang’e-5 mission, including those from two U.S. universities.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced the results of a latest round of international applications to borrow samples in Shanghai, April 24, during a conference marking China’s 10th annual space day. The event included a lunar sample loan agreement ceremony.
Seven universities from six countries—the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Pakistan—had applications approved, following a CNSA review in accordance with its sample management and cooperation rules, CNSA said in a statement. The U.S. institutions are Brown University and Stony Brook University, both of which receive NASA funding.
The announcement comes amid U.S.-China trade tensions following the imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration, U.S. barriers to bilateral cooperation on space, and wider Chinese space diplomacy efforts.
CNSA also announced the selection of a series of international projects to join its planned Chang’e-8 lunar south pole landing mission April 24. The selected projects featured countries involved in the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a China-led alternative to the U.S. Artemis lunar framework. The agency also stated in Shanghai that its Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission, scheduled to launch late 2028, is open to proposals for international payloads.
The robotic Chang’e-5 mission collected 1,731 grams of material from a geologically young area of Oceanus Procellarum on the near side of the moon, using a scoop and a drill, in late 2020. The material was first made available to Chinese researchers and institutions, before CNSA announced in August 2023 that international applications for samples would be accepted.
NASA stated in November that year that its researchers would, exceptionally, be allowed to apply to loan China’s Chang’e-5 samples, while still needing to follow long-standing, Congressionally-set rules which have sharply limited cooperation between the agency and Chinese state entities.
The “Wolf Amendment,” introduced in 2011, is a provision in annual NASA appropriations bills which heavily restricts bilateral cooperation with entities of the People’s Republic of China. Any NASA-funded individual or entity seeking to engage in bilateral activity would require a prior written request to, and granted permission from, Congress in advance, along with certification from the FBI that the activities would not pose a national security risk.
Analyses of the Chang’e-5 samples have led to discoveries including the new mineral, Changesite-(Y), evidence of a prolonged lunar dynamo, and allowed insights through comparison with the geologically older Apollo samples.
China followed up the success of Chang’e-5 with a more complex sample mission to the lunar far side in 2024. The Chang’e-6 mission collected 1,935.3 grams of material from Apollo crater, located within the vast South Pole-Aitken impact basin, and the first-ever collection of samples from the far side.
The material has so far provided insights into the lunar near-farside dichotomy, as well as validation of the lunar magma ocean hypothesis and calibration of lunar crater chronology, helping to refine comparative study of planetary surfaces across the solar system.
Chang’e-6 samples are so far only open to applications to Chinese institutions. However, as with the Chang’e-5 samples, these will be made available to international applications at a later date.
The lending of Chang’e samples reflects China’s broader strategy of using space cooperation to build international partnerships, particularly as competition with the U.S. over lunar exploration intensifies.
