ESA-China cooperation on the moon could end with Chang’e-6

HELSINKI — European-Chinese cooperation in lunar exploration could end despite successful cooperation on the ongoing Chang’e-6 mission.

ESA provided the payload for China’s Chang’e-6 complex mission to return samples to the far side of the Moon, which launched on May 3. The goal of the mission is to collect and return samples from the far side of the Moon, providing unprecedented insight into the composition and history of the Moon.

The instrument, developed by the Swedish Institute for Space Physics, was aboard the Chang’e-6 lander, which landed in the mid-latitude Apollo crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin earlier this month and collected samples.

The European team working with the Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument has confirmed the success of its science mission. The payload made the first detection of negative ions on the lunar surface.

“The discovery of a new component of plasma on the lunar surface opens a new window for space physics and for human and robotic missions in an era of renewed lunar exploration,” ESA said.

China is preparing for two missions to the moon’s south pole with Chang’e-7 around 2026 and an in-situ mission to exploit the resources and technology of Chang’e-8 in 2028 at the earliest.

However, the successful cooperation of the NILS experiment with Chang’e-6 may mark the end of the era of lunar cooperation between ESA and China.

“There are no decisions at this time to continue cooperation on Chang’e-7 or -8,” said Karl Bergquist, ESA’s international relations manager. SpaceNews.

Furthermore, ESA will not participate in the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).

“ESA will not cooperate on ILRS because it is a Sino-Russian initiative and space cooperation with Russia is currently embargoed,” Bergquist said.

It is the final blow for Sino-European space cooperation. ESA also said last year that it would no longer pursue the opportunity to send European astronauts to the Tiangong space station. China and ESA have previously held training exchanges.

ILRS, partners and Russian ratification

China and Russia officially unveiled a joint plan for the project in St. Petersburg in June 2021. The lunar base is to be initially robotic, built through super-heavy rocket launches in the 2030s. It will also host manned missions.

Moscow and Beijing tried to attract ESA and its member states to participate in the project. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 signaled the end of any prospect of cooperation.

China has assumed the leading role in ILRS from 2022. The project headquarters will be established in China. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) and its Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) have been at the center of efforts to attract partners, occasionally omitting mention of Russia as a partner. Much of this effort, as with China’s broader diplomatic efforts, has focused on the “Global South.”

Now 11 countries and other entities are registered. Russian reports indicate that Turkey has also applied to join the ILRS. On June 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the ratification of the intergovernmental agreement with China on the creation of the ILRS.

Meanwhile, the European Space Agency is involved in the Gateway and Artemis programs. A number of its member states have signed the Artemis agreements. The agreements have now been signed by 42 countries.

The TArtemis and ILRS projects and related diplomatic efforts can be seen as separate groups. However, there is a small degree of overlap. This includes Bahrain, a signatory to the agreements, which recently agreed to work with Egypt to develop a hyperspectral imager for Chang’e-7.