BEIJING, October 3, 2023 (Xinhua) – The China National Space Administration is offering opportunities for international cooperation on the payloads that will be carried by the Chang’e-8 lunar exploration probe, which is scheduled to be launched around 2028.
According to a statement issued by the aforementioned authority last Monday, the Chang’e-8 mission is open to all countries and international organizations to cooperate at the mission, system or single machine level in order to stimulate the achievement of more major original discoveries.
The Authority also put forward this call at the International Astronautical Congress currently being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Chang’e-8 mission, as a key mission in the fourth phase of China’s quest to explore the moon, will carry out further lunar geological observations and research, Earth observation operations from the moon, analysis of lunar samples and use of resources on site on the lunar surface, in addition to a small experiment. And closed to the terrestrial ecosystem on the moon’s surface, according to the Chinese National Space Administration.
Priority will be given to offers of international cooperation at the mission level that involves conducting cooperative exploration and interaction between two spacecraft.
It is also desirable to jointly develop lunar robots capable of performing basic operations on the lunar surface, and other complementary scientific payloads and highly innovative scientific projects.
The Chang’e-8 lander will provide a payload resource of 200 kilograms, but any independent unit for cooperation at the system or machine level must be less than 100 kilograms.
The deadline for submitting proposals for the Chang’e-8 mission for international cooperation has been set on December 31, 2023, while preliminary and final selections will be completed by April and September next year, respectively, as planned.
Chang’e-8, along with Chang’e-7, will form the basic model of a lunar research station. The Chang’e-7 probe is expected to be sent into space around 2026 to carry out exploration of the Moon’s South Pole resources.
Meanwhile, China will send Chang’e-6 to the moon around 2024 to collect samples from the far side of the moon as planned, carrying payloads from France, Italy, Pakistan and the European Space Agency, which include a negative ion detector and a radon gas detector.
The Chang’e-5 probe, launched in 2020, was the country’s latest mission to the moon. It brought a total of 1,731 grams of soil from the near side of the moon.
During its current conference in Baku, the International Academy of Astronautics awarded the “2023 Loral Team Achievement Award” to the Chang’e-5 team. The team’s chief designer, Hu Hao, announced there that lunar soil samples will also soon be available for international applications in investigations. /end of news/
