China, which aims to become a major space power by 2030, has opened up a key lunar mission to international cooperation as mission deadlines loom for setting up a permanent habitat on the south pole of the moon.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

China, which aims to become a major space power by 2030, has opened up a key lunar mission to international cooperation as mission deadlines loom for setting up a permanent habitat on the south pole of the moon.

China welcomes countries and international organisations on its uncrewed Chang’e-8 mission and to jointly carry out “mission-level” projects, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said at the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday.

Mission-level projects mean China and its international partners could launch and operate their spacecraft, conduct spacecraft-to-spacecraft “interactions”, and jointly explore the surface of the moon, according to details announced on CNSA’s website.

International partners are also welcome to “piggyback” on the Chang’e-8 mission and independently deploy their own modules once the Chinese spacecraft lands, CNSA said.

Interested parties must submit a letter of intent to CNSA by December 31. The final selection of proposals will come in September 2024.

The Chang’e-8 mission will follow the Chang’e-7 in 2026, which also aims to search for lunar resources on the moon’s south pole. The two missions will lay the foundations for the construction of the Beijing-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in the 2030s.

China, which deployed an uncrewed probe to the moon on the Chang’e-5 mission in 2020, plans to send an uncrewed Chang’e-6 probe to the far side of the moon in the first half of 2024 to retrieve soil samples.

China aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2030.

China’s timeline to build an outpost on the south pole coincides with NASA’s more ambitious and advanced Artemis program, which aims to put U.S. astronauts back on the lunar surface in December 2025, barring delays.

On the 2025 Artemis 3 mission, two U.S. astronauts will land on the lunar south pole, a region previously unvisited by any human. The last time a human set foot on the moon was in 1972 under the U.S. Apollo program.

The crewed Artemis 4 and 5 missions are planned for 2027 and 2029, respectively.

NASA is banned by U.S. law from collaborating with China, directly or indirectly.

As of September, 29 countries – including India, which landed a probe near the moon’s south pole in August – have signed the Artemis Accords, a pact crafted by NASA and the U.S. State Department aimed at establishing norms of behaviour in space and on the lunar surface.

China and Russia are not signatories of the agreement.

China, for its own lunar station program, has secured participation from only Russia and Venezuela so far.

The NASA Artemis rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard stands on pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022.
| Photo Credit: AP

Germany on Thursday became the 29th country to sign the Artemis Accords, a U.S.-led multilateral agreement meant to establish norms of behaviour in space and on the lunar surface.

The signing marks a key addition to a growing slate of countries aligning their space policies and standards of cooperation with the United States, as nations including China and India eye the moon as stage for technological advances and national prestige.

India, which last month became the fourth nation to achieve a soft landing on the moon, agreed to join the Artemis Accords in June but China and Russia have not.

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Germany became the latest signatory at the German ambassador’s residence in Washington during an event attended by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Walther Pelzer, head of the German Space Agency.

“It’s a big deal, because Germany is the economic powerhouse of Europe and has been a part of the European space program forever,” Nelson told Reuters on Thursday before the signing.

The accords aim to clarify and modernise principles of the widely ratified 1967 Outer Space Treaty by urging scientific transparency and establishing rules of coordination to avoid harmful interference in space and on the moon.

The pact is a diplomatic prong of the U.S. Artemis program, which was formed in 2019 with the goal of returning the first crew of astronauts to the lunar surface since 1972. Several short and long-term missions in the program aim to use the moon as a proving ground for spacecraft ahead of more difficult astronaut treks to Mars in the future.

Explained | India has signed the Artemis Accords. What is at stake? 

NASA has marshaled global allies and an array of private companies around the Artemis program to put NASA astronauts on the moon by 2027, a target that has been delayed from 2024 and is likely to be pushed back again amid spacecraft development delays.

Russia, an integral partner of NASA’s on the International Space Station, had considered participation in the Artemis program before instead agreeing to join China’s moon program, which also seeks to put humans on the lunar surface.

Japan, various European countries and other nations with big to small space programs have joined the accords. The European Space Agency (ESA), which represents 22 member states including Germany, is a core NASA partner on Gateway, a planned space station that will orbit the moon as part of the Artemis program.

“It’s vital to demonstrate unity and solidarity, and Germany signing signals unification among the pillar nations of ESA,” Mike Gold, NASA’s former international affairs chief and a key architect of the accords, told Reuters.