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A simulated landing process of the Chang-e-4 lunar probe is visible through the screen of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing, capital of China.
PHOTO: XINHUA
WASHINGTON: Space agencies from the United States and China are in contact and are coordinating their Moon exploration efforts, NASA said Friday, as it navigates into a strict legal framework aimed at preventing technology transfer to China.
"With congressional approval required, NASA has engaged in discussions with China to explore the possibility of observing the signing of the landing plume of their lunar lander, Chang e 4, with the help of our spacecraft instrument @NASAMoon ", NASA's Associate Administrator for the direction of the science mission, Thomas Zurbuchen, said on Twitter.
Zurbuchen's tweet confirmed a similar statement made Monday by the deputy commander-in-chief of China's lunar exploration program, Wu Yanhua.
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NASA has exchanged information from an American satellite while China has informed Americans of latitude, longitude and time of landing "on time," he said. .
The hope was that NASA's Orbiter Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) could see the historic touch of the Chinese lander on January 3rd.
NASA provided the planned orbit route of LRO to China, but it turned out that the spacecraft was not in the right place at the right time.
"For a number of reasons, NASA was not able to position the ORL orbit at the optimal location during the landing, but NASA was still interested in the ability to detect the plume well after landing, "said the agency in a statement.
"Science reunited on how lunar dust is ejected upward during the landing of a spacecraft could illuminate future missions and their arrival on the lunar surface."
Such observations could help astronauts prepare for future missions on the moon.
The NASA lunar orbiter will pass on Jan. 31 at the Chang'e 4 landing site and take photos, as it did for Chang'e 3 in 2013.
The agency said the important results of the cooperation would be shared with the global community of researchers in February at a United Nations space rally in Austria.
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Since 2011, the US Congress has banned NASA or the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the White House from using federal funds "to develop, design, plan, enact, implement or implement a policy, program , a bilateral order or contract of any kind whatsoever ". participate, collaborate or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or a Chinese-owned company. "
Exceptions are possible, but NASA must convince Congress and the FBI that this activity "would not pose a risk of transfer of technology, data or other information affecting national security or economic security in China. or to a Chinese-owned company ".
NASA said in a statement Friday that "all NASA data associated with this activity is publicly available" and that "NASA's cooperation with China is transparent, reciprocal and mutually beneficial."
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