Chinese and US astronomers make lunar history in collaboration to study the moon, the Milky Way and the universe

The collaboration is the result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between NAOC and the Hawaii-based non-profit International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) back in 2012, which allowed Hawaiian astronomers to use an ultraviolet telescope on China’s Chang’e 3 moon lander to capture images of the Pinwheel galaxy from the moon’s surface for the first time two years later.

“ILOA was honoured to have participated in the first China-America cooperation on the moon with a Chinese instrument. Now we are pleased to announce the plan to reciprocate on the long-standing Memorandum of Understanding,” ILOA founding director Steve Durst said.

“We believe this project will be the first China-America cooperation on the moon with a North American instrument,” Durst said in a release on Thursday.

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NAOC astronomer Zheng Yongchun said he was sincerely happy for ILOA.

“I know they have been working on this project for years, and that they encountered many difficulties along the way as a non-government organisation. Now, it’s wonderful to see them score a major, substantive victory.”

“Any success in lunar exploration is worth celebrating, because the moon does not belong to any country but to all mankind,” Zheng told the Post.

Zheng’s colleague Xue Suijian, who was a driving force behind the signing of the NAOC-ILOA agreement, said he still remembered watching the landing of Chang’e 3 with Durst at NAOC a decade ago.

Now, watching the landing of Odysseus online from his home in Beijing, Xue said he would like to congratulate the US for returning to the moon after more than 50 years.

“I believe the cameras on Odysseus will bring us exciting news very soon. We look forward very much to working with ILOA again, for galactic surveys and more,” he said.

The 0.6kg imaging suite on the US lander, known as ILO-X and developed by a Canadian company named Canadensys Aerospace, contains a wide field-of-view camera as well as a narrow field one. It aims to operate for one lunar day, or 14 Earth days, as it observes the universe, Earth and the environment near the landing site.

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As a precursor to ILOA’s coming flagship moon observatory ILO-1, ILO-X will also test some of the key technologies to be used on the ILO-1, according to Durst.

Results from NAOC observations with ILO-X, as well as those from about 10 other invited observatories, will be presented at an international forum organised by the Hawaiian non-profit to take place in Hainan in December, Durst said.

The 15mm-diameter lunar ultraviolet telescope on board Chang’e 3 is the world’s first long-term astronomical observatory on the lunar surface. It is still working, after a decade of monitoring stars and conducting sky surveys.

Last Thursday, Odysseus was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The mission, known as Intuitive Machines-1, is part of Nasa’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

Nasa is banned to collaborate directly with China under the so-called Wolf Amendment, a law passed by the US Congress in 2011 and named after then-Republican senator Frank Wolf.

As a private, non-profit enterprise, ILOA also signed an MOU with China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory last year for potential collaborations on the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).

The ILRS is an initiative led by China and Russia to build a base at the lunar south pole within the next decade for research and resource utilisation. It is often seen as a rival to the US-led Artemis programme.

South China Morning Post