By 
June 17th, 2023
Image credit: French National Center for Scientific Research
Lunar samples returned to Earth by China’s Chang’e-5 Moon mission have been transported to the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
Placed in an air-sealed container, the 1.5 grams of samples were given to France for scientific research during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to China last April.
Gift samples
As reported by the China Global Television Network (CGTN), the lunar samples originate from drilling and surface-gathering actions taken by Chang’e-5 in December 2020 at the Statio Tianchuan in the northeastern Oceanus Procellarum on the nearside of the Moon.
Box indicates Chang’e-5 lander on the basaltic plains of Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”) in December 2020. Image taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/ASU
The gift samples will be studied in a joint effort by the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES), the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Paris Institute of Earth Physics (IPGP) and the University of Paris-Sorbonne for the next five to seven years.
China has announced plans to carry instruments from the European and French space agencies for the country’s second sample return mission, Chang’e-6, in 2024 from the farside of the Moon.
Soviet Luna 16
China presented Russia with 1.5 grams of lunar samples when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited China. Russia reciprocated by providing China with 1.5 grams of lunar samples during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia in March 2023.
The Russian lunar samples given to China originate from the drilled samples by the former Soviet Union’s Luna 16 mission in 1970.
Photo taking during Chang’e-5 surface sampling.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
As noted by CGTN, a regulation on the management of lunar samples was released by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in December 2020 encourages international research and sharing of scientific achievements on lunar samples.
Scientists from Australia, Russia, France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden have participated in scientific research on Chinese lunar samples, CGTN added.
Impact glass beads
Earlier, research scientists in China reported the finding of water inside tiny beads of glass scattered across the Moon by studying lunar soil brought back by China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft.
Earlier this year, this finding was published in Nature Geoscience:
“A solar wind-derived water reservoir on the Moon hosted by impact glass beads” can be found here at:
Posted in Space News
