April 25 (UPI) — China is allowing six nations, including the United States, to examine moon rocks on loan from the 2020 Chinese Chang’e-5 lunar mission.
China National Space Administration’s Shan Zhongde told local Chinese media the moon rocks are “a shared treasure for all humanity.”
The United States does not return that favor because Congress has restricted NASA collaboration with China.
The Chinese space agency listed Brown University and State University of New York at Stonybrook as two of seven institutions that have permission to borrow the moon rocks collected by China.
Other institutions getting a look at the rocks include Osaka University in Japan, the Paris Institute of Planetary Physics, the University of Cologne in Germany, the British Open University and Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission.
“We look forward to scientists worldwide making more scientific discoveries, jointly expanding human knowledge and benefiting all of humanity,” Shan said.
The Chinese Chang’e-5 2020 mission was uncrewed. It made China the third nation on Earth to have collected moon rocks.
The United States and the Soviet Union collected moon rocks before China.
The Chang’e-5 rocks seem to be a billion years younger than moon rocks collected by the U.S. Apollo missions, according to Dr. John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.
China’s Chang’e-6 moon mission also brought lunar rocks back to Earth last year. That mission sought to collect some of the oldest known rocks to exist on the moon’s south pole.
