Chang'e Lunar Exploration World Sharing

Visitors are visiting the Chang'e-5 re-entry and return flight test mission spacecraft in Beijing. Taken by Ju Huanzong, a journalist from Xinhua News AgencyRecently, during the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held in Baku, Azerbaijan, scientists such as Chairman Schumacher of the International Academy of Astronautics presented the "Lawrence Team Award" to the Chinese Chang'e-5 team

Visitors are visiting the Chang'e-5 re-entry and return flight test mission spacecraft in Beijing. Taken by Ju Huanzong, a journalist from Xinhua News Agency

Recently, during the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held in Baku, Azerbaijan, scientists such as Chairman Schumacher of the International Academy of Astronautics presented the "Lawrence Team Award" to the Chinese Chang'e-5 team. Hu Hao, the chief designer of Chang'e-5, and other team representatives attended the award ceremony and announced that Chang'e-5 lunar research samples will soon be open for international application. We welcome scientists from all countries to study together and share their achievements.

What is the Lawrence Team Award? What does the Chang'e-5 team's award mean? What new developments will China's lunar exploration project make in the future?

Chang'e-5 achieved outstanding achievements

Chang'e-5 was China's first unmanned lunar sampling and return mission, and it was the most complex and technologically spanning space system engineering in China at that time. It broke through key technologies such as lunar sampling, lunar takeoff and ascent, lunar orbit rendezvous and docking, sample transfer, and skip re-entry and return. After a series of interlocking flight processes, it brought back 1731 grams of lunar samples, becoming the world's largest single unmanned lunar sampling mission. The Chang'e-5 mission is a vivid practice of China's high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement, laying the foundation for subsequent unmanned lunar research stations and manned lunar landings. It is another important milestone in China's aerospace development.

The Lawrence Team Award was established in 2001 and is one of the two major awards presented annually by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). It is the highest team honor of the International Academy of Astronautics and Astronautics, aimed at recognizing aerospace project teams that have achieved outstanding results in the field of aerospace. The outstanding achievements of Chang'e-5 in technological innovation, scientific discoveries, and international cooperation have won high recognition from international peers.

Hu Hao introduced that researchers have achieved multiple research results around the lunar samples brought back by Chang'e-5. At present, 6 batches of 258 lunar samples with a total of 77.68 grams have been distributed, and more than 70 papers have been published in authoritative journals both domestically and internationally. Representative scientific discoveries mainly include three aspects: firstly, through the study of lunar samples, the formation time of young basalts was determined to be 2.03 billion years, which is 800 million years longer than previous human cognition, revealing the evolution history of the "late years" of the moon; Secondly, in terms of the genesis of late lunar magmatic activity, two mainstream hypotheses have been overturned, which are that the magma source area is rich in radioactive elements to provide heat source and rich in water to reduce rock melting point; The third is the discovery of the sixth new lunar mineral, "Chang'e Stone".

Hu Hao stated that in order to effectively promote joint research and application of lunar samples and promote international sharing of scientific achievements, in accordance with the requirements of the National Space Administration's "Lunar Sample Management Measures" and the "International Cooperation Management Rules for Lunar Samples and Scientific Data", China will open applications for lunar research samples of Chang'e-5 to the international community. The specific requirements and procedures will be published on the website of the National Space Administration.

Implementation of Chang'e-6 around 2024

The person in charge of the National Space Administration has revealed that the Chang'e-6 spacecraft is currently undergoing prototype development work as planned and is scheduled to be implemented around 2024.

What are the differences between Chang'e-6 and Chang'e-5, which are both lunar sampling and return missions?

Hu Hao said that there are three main differences in the mission: "Firstly, the landing area of Chang'e-6 is the South Pole of the Moon - Aitken Basin; secondly, the support of the Queqiao 2 relay satellite was introduced during the mission implementation process; and thirdly, international cooperation content was added

It is reported that the 10 lunar sampling returns conducted by humans so far are all located on the front of the moon. The back of the moon is generally older than the front of the moon, and there is one of the three major lunar bodies, the Aitken Basin, which has important scientific research value. The pre selected landing area for the Chang'e-6 mission is located in the Aitken Basin at the far south pole of the moon, and it is expected to discover and collect lunar samples from different regions and ages.

Chang'e-8 provides cooperation opportunities

During the 74th International Astronautical Congress, the National Space Administration also released a notice on international cooperation opportunities for the Chang'e-8 mission.

As an important task of the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project, Chang'e-8 is scheduled to be launched around 2028. It will carry out exploration and research on multiple physical fields and regional geological profiles of the moon, lunar ground observation and research, in-situ sample analysis and resource utilization of the moon, and experiments and research on small enclosed terrestrial ecosystems in the lunar surface environment. Together with Chang'e-7 and others, it will form the basic type of lunar research station.

The relevant person in charge of the National Space Administration stated that China's lunar exploration project adheres to the principles of "equality, mutual benefit, peaceful utilization, and win-win cooperation", and opens up international cooperation opportunities for Chang'e-8 to the international community. We welcome countries and international organizations to join, carry out mission level, system level, and single machine level cooperation, jointly achieve more major original scientific discoveries, and jointly promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. The international cooperation of the Chang'e-8 mission will give priority to task level cooperation with spacecraft interaction and joint exploration, lunar robots with basic lunar operation capabilities, as well as other complementary scientific payloads and strong scientific innovation cooperation projects.

Looking forward to the future, China is accelerating the promotion of the International Lunar Research Station's major scientific project, issuing cooperation initiatives to countries around the world, and receiving active participation and response from nearly 20 countries and international organizations worldwide. This project will expand the scope of human cognition and contribute to the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind in the field of outer space, and create a better life for humanity.

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