China makes available to the international community Chang’e-5’s lunar samples
China on August 2, 2023 announced that it is now allowing scientists from all nations to apply for access to the lunar samples brought back to Earth by its 2020 Chang’e-5 mission to the Moon.
The announcement outlined very specific rules for the loan of the samples, including requirements that if any part of a sample needs to be destroyed to study it that action be videotaped in detail. Samples loaned for research are for one year periods only, though this can be extended.
The rules also allow two month loans for the use of samples in public display, such as at a museum.
In both cases China will closely supervise the research and retain the right to recall the samples at any time if it doesn’t approve of what the borrower is doing.
U.S. law forbids our government officials or agencies from working with China, so don’t expect NASA or its scientists to apply for these samples. However, the law doesn’t apply to independent scientists, though serious state department regulations would apply. I therefore doubt many American scientists will apply for any samples. It would carry too many risks to their other research.
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China on August 2, 2023 announced that it is now allowing scientists from all nations to apply for access to the lunar samples brought back to Earth by its 2020 Chang’e-5 mission to the Moon.
The announcement outlined very specific rules for the loan of the samples, including requirements that if any part of a sample needs to be destroyed to study it that action be videotaped in detail. Samples loaned for research are for one year periods only, though this can be extended.
The rules also allow two month loans for the use of samples in public display, such as at a museum.
In both cases China will closely supervise the research and retain the right to recall the samples at any time if it doesn’t approve of what the borrower is doing.
U.S. law forbids our government officials or agencies from working with China, so don’t expect NASA or its scientists to apply for these samples. However, the law doesn’t apply to independent scientists, though serious state department regulations would apply. I therefore doubt many American scientists will apply for any samples. It would carry too many risks to their other research.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Maybe someone can confirm the “Changesite-(Y)” they found in the “huge” sample return (2 kg) they did. They found one 10 micron diameter crystal after manually searching 140,000 other particles. The mineral is claimed to have He3 in it.
It seems the Chinese are trying to leverage a dying market. I’d wager in less than ten years, any moderately-heeled organization will have a choice of lunar sample-return options.
I’d thoroughly scrub any boxes those samples were delivered in for biohazards and electronic “bugs..”