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China has been the only country to land on the moon for over 40 years – since the Soviet Luna program. Its recent missions to Chang’e (1-4) demonstrated that China could not only orbit and land on the moon, but also successfully operate a rover. On November 24, China’s National Space Administration launched Chang’e 5 – the latest in the series.
This mission of collecting and returning samples is impressive. The recent failed moon landings by a privately funded Israeli mission and Indian lander Vikram show how difficult these missions always are.
Read more: To the Moon & Beyond 3: The New Space Race & What It’s Like To Win
So is this just a case of China using space exploration to show the world that its new scientific and technological capabilities rival those of the West? And if so, what are the consequences?
The mission
Chang’e 5 (named after the Chinese goddess of the Moon) is intended to collect samples from Mons Rümker, a 70 km wide and 500 meters high dome made of basalt in the region of Oceanus Procellarum Mare, nearby from the moon.
The plan is to then bring back 2 kg of samples drilled and taken from Earth. If the mission is successful, planetary scientists will be able to test some key theories about the origin of the Moon and the rocky planets of the Inner Solar System, which date back to the Apollo era.
The age of a rocky body can be estimated based on its density of craters. The longer a body has existed, the more debris will have bombarded its surface. But it is not a very precise measurement. Estimates of the age of Mons Rümker and its surroundings, derived from the number of impact craters, have ranged from over 3 billion to 1 billion years ago.
The absolute age of returned samples will be determined by radiometric dating. This is a method of dating geological specimens by calculating the relative proportions of particular radioactive isotopes (elements with more or less particles in the atomic nucleus than the standard substance) they contain. This will help us better understand how the crater density corresponds to age. And this can then be used to improve the age models of surface craters on the Moon and Mars, Mercury and Venus.
The new space race
Few would dispute that the rise of China’s space program – which involves satellites, human missions and a space station slated for 2022 – has been swift and successful. But there is competition. The US-led Artemis program has set itself the goal of bringing humans back to the moon by 2024, which would notably be before any Chinese taikonauts land.
The European Space Agency also has its own plans for the Moon, including the large European logistics lander EL3, which aims to deliver a 1.3 ton lander with new science experiments in the late 2020s. However, plans for China for the Moon are becoming more ambitious than those in Europe. A new cohort of 18 trainee Chinese taikonauts recently began their training with long-term goals of equipping their new space station, walking on the moon and eventually reaching Mars.
Research spending in China is driving this rapid growth. The country is close to achieving its goal of devoting 2.5% of its growing GDP to research and development. This bridges the gap with the United States, which spent 2.8% of GDP in 2018. The UK currently spends around 1.7% of its GDP on research and development.
China’s capabilities will undoubtedly continue to grow. As a scientist in the West, I wonder how this will shape the research of future generations. Will Chinese universities begin to lead space research and influence rankings currently dominated by Western universities? Is this rapid development a good thing, given that the Chinese state is not democratic?
There are reasons to be optimistic, such as potential collaboration – at least between Europe and China. The fact that many geochemical models of lunar and planetary formation have their roots in the 380 kg of samples brought back by the Apollo missions means that scientists across the world are excited to sample a new area of the moon. Western planetologists are actually interested in Chang’e 5 and the Chinese lunar program.
One of my earliest memories of space science was seeing the successful bonding of the US-Soviet space station Skylab in 1973-74. It was a counterweight to the politics of the Cold War era, and it happened despite the lack of democracy in the Soviet Union.
As an academic scientist, I believe that the presence of many Chinese students on our campuses over the past decade could help promote collaboration and future changes. COVID-19 is hampering that now, so hopefully Chang’e 5 succeeds and becomes a path to future collaboration that could help defuse tensions.
This article is republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read it original article.
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