After more than 20 days of space "business trips", Chang'e-6 finally successfully returned on June 25 under the watchful eye of all people.
On June 28, the China National Space Administration held a handover ceremony for lunar samples of the Chang'e-6 mission in Beijing. According to preliminary calculations, the Chang'e-6 mission collected 1,935.3 grams of samples from the far side of the moon. After the samples are safely transported to the lunar sample laboratory, the researchers of the Chinese ground application system will carry out the storage and processing of the lunar samples as planned, and start scientific research.
This marks the official transition of the Chang'e-6 mission from the project implementation stage to a new stage of scientific research. Whether China can share the lunar soil it has brought back to relevant countries for research has become a hot topic of concern for many countries.
At a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on June 27, Liu Yunfeng, head of the Department of International Cooperation of the China National Space Administration, said that China welcomes scientific researchers from all countries to apply in accordance with the relevant procedures and share the benefits. This fully demonstrates China's willingness to share its aerospace scientific and technological achievements with other countries and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind. But as things stand, the U.S. doesn't get a share. According to information in cyberspace, the first batch of lunar soil "sharing lists" has been "announced", and 18 countries have been able to obtain Chang'e-6 lunar soil.
Chang'e-6 carries probes or mirrors from four other countries and organizations: Pakistan, the European Space Agency, France and Italy. Naturally, the countries involved in this will be able to share. Russia, a former space power, is also an important strategic partner of China, and an important member of the first batch of "sharing lists". The 18 countries include Russia, Australia, Pakistan, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, India, the United Kingdom, and many more. Not surprisingly, the United States was left out.
In fact, China has always opposed the practice of "small courtyards and high walls" and advocated extensive space cooperation for the benefit of all mankind. But this time the lunar soil sharing is really difficult to provide to the US side, for the reason that everyone knows, because the US has a "Wolf Clause" that prohibits NASA or joint scientific research activities coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from being related to China.
The US side is cocooning itself. Of course, the Chinese side will not touch this US law, but there are still institutions in the US that have been very active. They are chicken thieves, and just as China's Chang'e-6 was successfully returning, the relevant institutions in the United States unexpectedly joined forces with the four top universities to request us to participate in the scientific research of lunar soil. Because they are not covered by the "Wolf Clause" as providers of scientific research provided by NASA and the White House, they are not violating U.S. law by doing so.
And will China provide it to them? I don't know now, but at least not in the "list" shared in the first batch.
There are media in the United States who are very dissatisfied with the "allocation" of lunar soil without them. CNN reported that China now supplies lunar soil to its own scientists and scientific teams that have cooperated with China, and only after three years will it allocate lunar soil to international teams for research. By the time the international team gets the lunar soil, the results of the Chinese scientists' research have already been released, which is unfair to the international research team.
This report is simply a bit of a yin and yang weirdness. First of all, China is providing lunar soil to relevant countries or institutions, not three years from now. Secondly, he did not say what the crux of China's inability to supply lunar soil to the United States is. They have forgotten the blockade and suppression of our space industry in the past. Forget about the restrictive clauses of the United States itself on China. History is always moving forward, but some countries seem to be still immersed in the arrogance of the past.
China's success in this lunar retrieval and generous international sharing are undoubtedly a merciless mockery of the United States' restrictions on China's space cooperation.