China's Chang'e-8 Mission International Cooperation Updates

TapTechNews Jun 27th, during the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held on October 2nd last year, the National Space Administration released the Chang'e-8 international cooperation opportunity announcement, providing about 440.92 pounds of payload carrying space to the international community.

More than half a year has passed now, and Xinhua News Agency reports that Chang'e-8 has received more than 30 cooperation applications so far.

TapTechNews note: The application for the Chang'e-8 mission international cooperation project intention letter ended on December 31, 2023, and it is planned to complete the preliminary selection in April 2024 and the final selection in September to confirm the cooperation project. The National Space Administration will continue to issue relevant explanations later.

Chang'e-8 is an important task in the fourth phase of the Lunar Exploration Project, composed of a lander, a lunar rover and an intelligent lunar surface robot. It is planned to be launched around 2028 and will jointly form the basic type of the Lunar Research Station together with Chang'e-7, etc. Its scientific goals include:

1. Lunar multi-physics field detection and research;

2. Lunar regional geological profile detection and research;

3. Lunar-based ground-atmospheric energy balance and macroscopic observation and research of the Earth's magnetosphere;

4. In-situ lunar sample analysis and resource in-place utilization experiment and research;

5. Experiment and research of small closed terrestrial ecosystem under the lunar surface environment.

The Chang'e-8 mission plans to configure 14 domestic scientific payloads, including: the lander is configured with a landing camera, a geomorphic camera, a lunar seismometer, a low-frequency electromagnetic field detector on the lunar surface, a heat flow measuring instrument for the lunar soil profile, a lunar-based ground observation radiometer, a lunar-based ground observation array multi-spectral instrument, a soft X-ray telescope, a small terrestrial ecosystem experimental device and an in-situ resource utilization test device, etc. 10 scientific payloads; the rover is configured with a panoramic camera, a lunar sounding radar, an infrared spectroscopic mineral analyzer, and an in-situ sample analysis and storage device on the lunar surface, etc. 4 scientific payloads.

The Chang'e-8 mission lander can provide no more than 440.92 pounds of mass resources (including cooperation project and detector interface, separation or release device, cables and other adapter parts), and carry out system-level and single-machine-level cooperation projects.

After the Chang'e-8 mission arrives on the lunar surface, the cooperation project can be separated from the lander and work independently, that is, system-level cooperation projects such as lunar robots, rovers, and lunar aircraft, or can be carried on the lander platform to work, that is, single-machine-level cooperation projects. The specific support conditions that can be provided to the cooperation project (such as electromechanical thermal interface, ground test requirements, etc.) will be clarified in the subsequent technical coordination process.

The official also mentioned: The international cooperation of the Chang'e-8 mission will give priority to mission-level cooperation with the ability to conduct inter-device interaction and joint detection, lunar robots with basic lunar surface operation capabilities, and other complementary scientific payloads and scientifically innovative cooperation projects.