China to lend moon rocks to NASA-funded US universities
SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China's national space agency announced on Thursday it would let scientists from the U.S. and allied countries analyse rocks it retrieved from the moon, Beijing's latest move to increase the international influence of its lunar exploration programme.
The announcement highlights how U.S.-China cooperation in some areas like space has not completely ended, despite tensions between the two countries over geopolitics and tariffs.
Two U.S. universities that receive NASA funding, Brown University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, are among the seven institutions that have been allowed to borrow lunar samples China retrieved from the moon in 2020.
The remaining authorised institutions are from Japan, France, Germany, Britain, and Pakistan.
With its uncrewed Chang'e-5 mission in 2020 China became only the third country to collect rocks from the lunar surface, joining the Soviet Union and the United States, which last went to the moon and retrieved samples in 1972.
China's subsequent uncrewed Chang'e-6 mission, completed in June last year, made it the first country to bring back rocks from the side of the moon facing away from Earth.
U.S.-China cooperation on space has long been deterred by a 2011 U.S. law that seeks to ensure American technologies stay out of the hands of China's military. Under the law, NASA must work with the FBI to certify to Congress that any such talks with China would not threaten U.S. national security.
NASA head Bill Nelson told Reuters in October that NASA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) were discussing the terms of Beijing's loan agreement for the Chang'e-5 moon rocks after he assured American lawmakers that the talks would not pose national security concerns.
Four U.S. universities had applied for access to the Chang'e-5 samples, Nelson said then, adding he thought the talks would end with China agreeing to provide access to samples.
However, he said he expects NASA to have to work with the FBI for another national security certification to enable any moon rock deliveries to U.S. universities for research.
Beijing hopes to use its space prowess to forge closer political ties with close partners and U.S. allies alike.
"It seems the United States is quite closed off now despite being open in the past, while we were closed off in the past and are now open; this is because of the increase in our nation's overall strength and consequent rise in self-confidence," Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration programme, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday, adding that growing U.S. "isolationism" would not help its space ambitions.
A CNSA official said on Wednesday the Chang'e-4 and 6 missions had four international payloads, while the Chang'e-7 mission next year will have six international payloads and "cooperation with 10 countries" is being discussed for the subsequent Chang'e-8 mission.
China hopes Chang'e-7 and 8 can help provide the information it needs to decide where and how to build a permanent manned lunar base by 2035.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
3 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Another Moon Landing Will Take More Than Rocket Science
You don't hear the phrase, 'If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we…' much anymore. Perhaps that's because it's not clear that 21st-century America can put a person on the moon again. The Wall Street Journal resurrected the expression in 2018, in a story about the cost overruns and bureaucratic snags hampering NASA's Artemis program. The headline read, 'If We Can Put a Man on the Moon, Why Can't We Put a Man on the Moon?'
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
The Parker Solar probe captures closest-ever images of the Sun. See the results.
Newly released imagery from NASA shows the Sun's corona in stunning detail after the Parker Solar probe performed its closest-ever flyby. On its closest-ever flyby to the Sun, NASA's Parker Solar probe captured newly released images of solar winds purging out from the Sun's outermost atmosphere, the Corona. Scientists are learning more about the Sun's impact throughout the solar system, including events that may have an impact on Earth. 'Parker Solar Probe has once again transported us into the dynamic atmosphere of our closest star,' said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington in a recent release. 'We are witnessing where space weather threats to Earth begin, with our eyes, not just with models. This new data will help us vastly improve our space weather predictions to ensure the safety of our astronauts and the protection of our technology here on Earth and throughout the solar system.' Sun's solar wind captured in detail For the first time, the probe recorded in high resolution the collision of numerous coronal mass ejections (or CMEs) which are massive explosions of charged particles that play a major role in space weather. 'In these images, we're seeing the CMEs basically piling up on top of one another,' said Angelos Vourlidas, the WISPR instrument scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which designed, built, and operates the spacecraft in Laurel, Maryland. 'We're using this to figure out how the CMEs merge together, which can be important for space weather.' Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them. The Parker Solar Probe discovered that while the solar wind is a steady breeze near Earth, it is anything but at the Sun. The spacecraft experienced switchbacks, or zigzag magnetic fields, when it got within 14.7 million miles of the Sun. Scientists found that these switchbacks, which occurred in clusters, were more frequent than anticipated using data from the Parker Solar Probe. How close was the probe to the sun? On December 24, 2024, the Parker Solar Probe began its closest approach to the Sun, traveling only 3.8 million miles from the solar surface. Putting that into perspective, if the Earth and Sun were only 1 foot apart, the Parker probe would be about a 1/2 inch from the Sun's surface, according to NASA. In the spacecraft's closest orbit to the Sun, it used a variety of scientific instruments, including the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (or WISPR) to gather data as it passed through the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona. The solar wind, a continuous flow of electrically charged particles from the Sun that rages throughout the solar system and the corona are both visible in the new WISPR photos. Knowing the origins of the solar wind near the Sun is the first step towards comprehending its effects, according to NASA. More: James Webb Space Telescope marks 3rd anniversary: What to know about observatory More: NASA astronaut captures rare phenomenon from 250 miles above Earth: See photo of 'sprite' How the Sun's solar winds impact Earth's atmosphere The Earth's magnetic field is our invisible protector. The field creates a barrier that shields us from the powerful solar winds. The magnetic field can occasionally become disrupted by stronger solar winds. According to NASA, in some cases, it can also trigger space weather events that interfere with everything from land-based power networks to ship communications on our oceans to our satellites in orbit. Stunning auroras are also created when the particle stream interacts with gases in the planet's magnetic field. Parker Solar Probe is expected to continue gathering more data in its present orbit as it makes future passes through the corona to assist scientists to discover the origins of the sluggish solar wind. The next pass is scheduled for September 15, 2025. SOURCE NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Johns Hopkins APL, Naval Research Laboratory and USA TODAY research
Fast Company
4 hours ago
- Fast Company
A newly discovered exoplanet rekindles humanity's oldest question: Are we alone?
Child psychologists tell us that around the age of five or six, children begin to seriously contemplate the world around them. It's a glorious moment every parent recognizes—when young minds start to grasp the magnificence and mystery of the universe beyond their nurseries and bedrooms. That wonderment—their very own 'aha' moments, and the questions they provoke—are what truly make us human. And this summer, thanks to both the scientific triumphs of astronomers and the creative feats of pop culture, we are reminded once again that curiosity is our most powerful gift. Remarkably, the profound questions asked by our youngest philosophers continue to echo throughout our lives, returning again and again as the most compelling of all inquiries. Definitely discoverable, possibly livable Earlier this summer, the James Webb Space Telescope—launched in 2021 and continually gathering data on planets beyond our solar system— identified a previously unknown exoplanet. What made this discovery particularly groundbreaking is that, unlike earlier exoplanets detected indirectly by observing the dimming of starlight, this one was directly imaged. Even more exciting: according to NASA, this new exoplanet—named CE Antliae and roughly 100 times the size of Earth—is, based on its average temperature, theoretically capable of sustaining habitable life. I find this moment thrilling for many reasons. First, I hold the deepest admiration for the brilliance of NASA scientists—and the researchers whose work they built upon—that made this discovery possible. Second, it serves as a powerful reminder of the essential role government plays in pushing the boundaries of knowledge. These physical frontiers also invite us to explore existential ones. The possibility of a habitable planet offers a momentary escape from the noise of the daily news cycle, and reopens a question that has captivated us since ancient times: Are we alone? Simply looking up at the night sky—a universal gift—places us in the company of Democritus, Epicurus, and later, the Persians, who speculated about extraterrestrial life as far back as 400 BCE. It's one of humanity's oldest questions, fueled by an innate curiosity that rarely yields immediate answers. Science has its own schedule Of course, we're far from confirming whether this exoplanet has its own version of Uber or inhabitants with built-in AI. Science operates on its own timeline. To have directly observed an exoplanet only five years after Webb's launch could be seen as astonishingly fast—or perhaps not, given the advanced tools now at our disposal, from machine learning to quantum computing. In today's attention economy, dominated by thumb-scrolling and short-form content, we risk losing sight of the long view that science requires. The rise of generative AI and its future successor, AGI, may well disrupt the pace of discovery. But even then, the scientific process will still demand patience and rigor. We must remember: it took nearly a century to confirm Einstein's theory of gravitational waves. The theory of continental drift was proposed in 1912, but not proven until the 1960s. Black holes were hypothesized in the early 1900s, yet the first image didn't arrive until 2019. One of the many reasons I advocate so strongly for STEM education is that children need to understand science as a process—a patient, layered accumulation of insight. Humanity's oldest question—'are we alone in the universe?'—likely won't be answered quickly. And even if it is, critical thinking and the scientific method remain essential. Yes, flashes of insight can transform history. But even those leaps must launch from a foundation of conventional wisdom. Science is a continuous journey of discovery—both awe-inspiring and, at times, unsettling. Pop culture meets the 'what's out there' question Movies and literature have long reflected our obsession with the unknown—from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Contact to Dune. This summer, Alien: Earth premieres. Reading about this reimagining of first contact, I couldn't help but think of CE Antliae and how science and art intersect. The discovery of a potentially habitable planet pushes us to reconsider what we define as 'science fiction.' There are many paths through which humanity seeks to understand its place in the universe. And we need both our most gifted scientists and our most imaginative artists to help us ask—and keep asking—the cosmic questions that first stirred our six-year-old minds and have never let go.
