Earlier this week, China’s Chang’e 6 lunar probe landed in Inner Mongolia, delivering the first samples collected on the far side of the moon.
The mission has caused excitement in the international scientific community – the far side of the moon, which is permanently turned away from the Earth, remains a mystery, as only China has landed on its surface so far.
However, one country is prohibited from examining the extremely rare samples: the United States.
In 2011, the United States passed a law called the “Wolf Amendment” that prevents NASA from using state funds to work directly with China.
The controversial law has become a hot topic, with a possible repeal becoming a “political football being tossed back and forth between warring factions keen to portray China as an emerging adversary in space and less combative advocates seeking to leverage the country’s meteoric rise in the space to the benefit of the United States,” as Scientific American wrote in 2021.
“The source of the obstacle in US-China aerospace cooperation still lies in the Wolf Amendment,” China National Aeronautics and Space Administration Vice Chairman Bian Zhigang told reporters this week, as reported by the Related Press“If the United States really hopes to have regular cooperation in aerospace, I think it should take appropriate steps to remove this obstacle.”
Chinese officials announced today that their Chang’e 6 rover has brought back nearly two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rock samples from the far side of the moon. While it’s far from the largest sample ever brought back from the moon – NASA’s Apollo 16 mission brought back a whopping 26 pounds of rock in 1972 – it is the first sample brought back from the far side of the moon.
The extremely rocky and cratered surface of the far side makes it an extremely challenging environment to study, and its special features have long puzzled scientists.
Now China’s groundbreaking Chang’e-6 mission may finally provide some answers. For one thing, the samples could shed light on what local resources future space explorers could use, including water ice.
While China has cooperated with numerous countries on its Chang’e-6 mission, the United States is unlikely to be involved in scientists analyzing the samples in the laboratory due to the Wolf Amendment.
However, this does not mean that China is not open to the idea.
“China welcomes scientists from all countries to apply according to the procedures and share in the benefits,” Liu Yunfeng, director of international cooperation at the China National Space Administration, told reporters.
The Wolf Amendment, named after former U.S. Representative Frank Wolf, prohibits NASA from using government funds to cooperate with the Chinese government – unless There is an FBI certification that such cooperation does not pose a threat to national security or a risk of inadvertent disclosure of space-related technology or data.
The aim was to pressure China to improve its human rights situation. However, according to experts, these desired changes have not occurred in the past 13 years.
Instead, China has made significant progress: its space agency has sent several rovers to the lunar surface over time and launched its own space station in less than two years.
But there’s still a small chance NASA could help China study its samples from the far side of the moon. In a rare case of U.S.-Chinese cooperation last year, NASA invited scientists to apply to study samples returned to the Earth-facing side of the moon by China’s Chang’e-5 mission in 2020.
At the time, the space agency announced that it had submitted the necessary certifications to Congress to demonstrate that there was no risk in sharing technology or data with China.
China currently has a strong negotiating position. With nearly half a dozen successful trips to the lunar surface in recent years, it has significantly outpaced NASA’s efforts. The US agency’s last trip to the lunar surface was over half a century ago – and they still have a long way to go to change that.
More about Chang’e 6: Chinese spacecraft lands on Earth with the first samples in human history from the far side of the moon
