According to media reports, in accordance with the "Lunar Sample Management Measures" and the "Cooperative Management Details for Lunar Samples and Scientific Data," the China National Space Administration has organized an international borrowing application review for lunar scientific samples. Ultimately, the borrowing applications from seven institutions, including the Paris Geophysical Institute of France, the University of Cologne in Germany, Osaka University in Japan, the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, the Open University of the United Kingdom, Brown University in the United States, and Stony Brook University at the State University of New York, have passed the review and can obtain lunar samples brought back by the Chang'e-5 mission to carry out scientific research.
Despite the United States' repeated obstruction of China's aerospace development, we still shared the lunar soil from Chang'e-5 with the United States. The reason for sharing is that Brown University is a traditional powerhouse in Earth sciences. The distribution coefficients of various minerals used in the current lunar system are basically responsible for being handled by Brown University. The university has a rich history of planetary scientific research and a strong experimental petrology team, as well as better technology for using secondary ion probes.
Stony Brook in New York can analyze the lunar soil from Chang'e-5 to establish spectral standards for the analysis of satellite remote sensing data. Sharing the lunar soil with them also improves our research on lunar soil.
The 1,731 grams of lunar soil brought back by Chang'e-5 could be said to fill a gap in global lunar sampling missions for nearly half a century. Moreover, it is a unique lunar soil sample globally.
This is because most of the lunar samples obtained by the U.S. and the Soviet Union come from the low-latitude lunar mare regions on the front side of the moon, with formation ages concentrated between 3.2 and 4.6 billion years ago. However, the lunar soil samples collected by Chang'e-5 near Mount Rumker in the northwest part of the Oceanus Procellarum were relatively younger, containing basalt formed approximately 1.3 to 2 billion years ago.
The lunar samples returned by Apollo and Luna missions have been studied for more than half a century. People's understanding of lunar evolution has grown increasingly slowly, even stagnating. The series of results from the Chang'e-5 lunar soil "provide evidence for the youngest basalt identified on the Moon so far" and "change our understanding of the Moon's thermal and magmatic history." It holds significant meaning for our understanding of the Moon's origin and evolution.
You can see from this that we have discovered a new mineral from the study, called "Chang'e Stone." Chang'e Stone was found in the basaltic fragments of the Chang'e-5 lunar soil and is a new phosphate mineral belonging to the Merrillite family. The particles are about 2 to 30 micrometers in size, micro-columnar in shape, and associated minerals include ferrosilite, orthopyroxene, ilmenite, calcic plagioclase, brachyolite, quartz, troilite, and glass. From this, you can see how valuable our lunar soil is.
As early as when Chang'e-5 returned to Earth, both the United States, Russia, and Europe hoped that China would share lunar soil samples. Yevgeny Sluta, director of the Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Geochemistry at the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, stated that Russian scientists hope to obtain lunar soil samples from their Chinese counterparts.
American media gave detailed coverage of the Chang'e-5 lunar mission and once again emphasized their view that they hope China will share lunar soil samples with countries around the world. (Not only helping themselves but also helping other countries...)
In fact, regarding whether to share the lunar soil from Chang'e-5 with American research institutions, China has also been very conflicted. For example, in 2011, a Chinese person employed under contract by NASA Langley Research Center was arrested upon returning home through a transit. The U.S. claimed he secretly brought back "a large amount of information technology that he might not have the right to control," implying that China sent people to steal U.S. space technology.
After thorough investigation, no evidence was found on his computer, and it was ultimately claimed that there were "restricted films" on his computer.
Due to this baseless incident, Frank Wolf, chairman of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, added a prohibition clause in the U.S. financial spending bill that year, prohibiting any joint scientific research activities involving NASA or coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy between China and the United States. It even prohibited all NASA facilities from hosting "official visitors from China" under the pretext of counterespionage.
Then, under the clamor of people like Wolf, the ban on China at NASA continued to intensify until all Chinese individuals became unwelcome guests, constantly obstructing cooperation between China and the U.S. in high-tech fields such as aerospace.
Since then, Chinese scholars have faced重重 restrictions and suppression during academic exchanges in the U.S. One of the most threatening aspects of the "Wolf Clause" is that if China and the U.S. engage in space cooperation, the U.S. could potentially arrest Chinese aerospace science and technology workers under the pretext of violating the law.
In the context of the global tariff war, China's decision to share lunar soil is also an indication to the world that whether it's economic globalization or scientific globalization, it is an irreversible trend. America's actions are regressive, and its attempts to isolate other countries will ultimately isolate itself.
Sharing lunar soil with universities not only adheres to the principle of the Treaty on Outer Space that lunar resources belong to all humanity but also circumvents the political restrictions of the U.S. "Wolf Clause" on direct cooperation between China's and the U.S.'s space agencies in a non-official form. Historically, the 1 gram of Apollo lunar soil gifted by the U.S. to China in 1978 helped Chinese scientists publish 14 papers, accumulating key technical experience for subsequent lunar exploration projects. This sharing also implicitly responds to historical reciprocity.
In addition, opening up samples to international peers, including those from the U.S., reflects confidence in one's own achievements and aims to promote the establishment of a more equal international cooperation paradigm—as Chief Designer of China's Lunar Exploration Program Wu Weiren said, "When we have the ability to contribute unique value, the initiative of scientific cooperation truly lies in our hands." With the global sharing of lunar soil from the upcoming Chang'e-6 mission, this open cooperation tied by scientific value may reshape the landscape of deep-space exploration worldwide.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7497174489906561586/
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