Latest news with #WolfAmendment
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
China is sharing priceless moon samples with international partners, but NASA can't be a part of it
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Precious moon samples brought back to Earth by China's Chang'e 5 mission in 2020 have finally been shared with international researchers — but the law has made it difficult for U.S.-based scientists to receive any of the material. Earlier in May, British planetary scientist Mahesh Anand of the Open University in Milton Keynes travelled to China to "borrow" 60 milligrams (0.002 ounces) of the 1,731-gram (3.8 pounds) Chang'e 5 sample. Scientists from elsewhere in Europe, as well as Ethiopia, Russia and the United States, are also receiving samples. In the other countries, government funding bodies are paying for the analysis of these loaned samples, but NASA is prevented from funding U.S.-based researchers to do the same. Instead, Timothy Glotch, the lone American planetary scientist who has received a sample of the Chang'e 5 material, had to be funded privately by his own institution, Stony Brook University in New York. That's because of a law passed in 2011 called the Wolf Amendment. Named after Frank Wolf, the Republican senator who pushed for it, it was inserted as an amendment into the 2011 federal budget and bars bilateral cooperation between NASA (and the scientists the agency funds) and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Chinese scientists. The aim is to prevent Chinese government scientists from gaining knowledge of American space technologies that the U.S. government fears could then be used militarily by China against the United States. The Wolf Amendment seems counter to the old way of doing things. Science has often been a bridge between opposing countries. During the Cold War, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) was a project that U.S. and Soviet scientists worked together on, including a famous conference held in the USSR in 1971. Another example was the Apollo–Soyuz rendezvous in 1975, when astronauts and cosmonauts shook hands in space. The Wolf Amendment, however, prevents similar space-science cooperation taking place between the U.S. and Chinese governments without the prior approval of Congress. And, it seems, the Wolf Amendment works both ways, preventing NASA from receiving or funding research into the Chinese moon samples. Luckily for Glotch, this has not stopped China from sharing a sample with him and his research group, which includes scientists at San Francisco State University and the University of Hong Kong, as long as they are funded privately. Allowing American researchers access to the Chang'e 5 samples is important, because it allows them to make direct comparisons between Apollo-era lunar samples and the Chang'e 5 samples in the same lab. Glotch plans to test the thermal properties of his "loaned" sample by heating it (we say loaned, but the analysis will likely destroy the sample), and then comparing it to thermal maps of the moon to provide a greater understanding of the composition of different lunar regions based on how they heat up and cool down in sunlight, relative to the Chang'e 5 sample. Related stories: — China's Chang'e 5 capsule lands on Earth with the 1st new moon samples in 44 years — China returns samples from the moon's far side in historic 1st (video) — The moon on Earth: Where are NASA's Apollo lunar rocks now? The Chang'e 5 sample was obtained by the Chinese spacecraft from Mons Rümker, which is an ancient volcanic region in the giant Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms"). By making direct comparisons between the Apollo samples, which were taken from various locations on the moon, and the Chang'e 5 sample, Glotch's group hopes to gain greater insights into the volcanism that created the samples in the first place. Chinese scientists have already discovered that the basaltic material in the Chang'e 5 sample is substantially younger than the volcanic samples collected by Apollo, by billions of years. This tells us that the moon was volcanically active for much longer than scientists had realized — perhaps as recently as 120 million years ago. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Anand's team will heat some of their 60 milligram sample to 2,550 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 degrees Celsius) to extract noble gases such as argon and krypton, as well as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, to provide more data about the history of those elements in the solar system.
South China Morning Post
02-05-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
US space agency Nasa will not fund study on China's moon sample: American scientist
Advertisement Earlier this month, planetary scientist Timothy Glotch of Stony Brook University was selected by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to receive a rare set of specimens collected by China's lunar sample return mission in 2020. Glotch told the South China Morning Post he hoped to compare properties of the soil and rock samples to Apollo-era rocks . His goal was to help answer long-standing questions about the moon's volcanic past, diverse surface materials and how they have been altered by billions of years in space. But unlike most US research involving lunar samples, his project will not be supported by Nasa. The reason is the Wolf Amendment , a congressional restriction that bars Nasa and its grantees from direct cooperation with Chinese government entities like CNSA. A moon surface taken by a panoramic camera aboard the lander-ascender combination of Chang'e-6 spacecraft after it landed on the moon. Photo: CNSA/Xinhua via AP 'I'm grateful to my institution for providing funds for me to travel to China and to my research collaborators' institutions to carry out our proposed work,' Glotch said. Advertisement While the process is still in its early stages, he will collaborate with scientists from the University of Hong Kong and San Francisco State University to analyse the samples. Stony Brook's officials must still sign the loan agreement with CNSA before the samples can be shipped, Glotch added.
Business Recorder
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
China lunar chief accuses US of interfering in joint space programmes with other nations
SHANGHAI: The chief designer of China's lunar exploration programme accused the United States on Wednesday of interfering in Beijing's attempts to cooperate with Europe and other foreign partners in space programmes. Wu Weiren, in a rare interview with foreign media, told Reuters that China pursued a policy of open space diplomacy, in contrast with the U.S., and that it remained open to cooperating on lunar exploration with developing and developed countries. Wu said the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), an initiative led by Russia and China to establish a permanent base on the moon by 2035, was developing well, with 17 countries and international organisations already signed up as members. But he suggested China had not been able to attract as many lunar project partners as the U.S. because of U.S. interference, though he didn't provide details. 'The ILRS' development trend is very good but compared to the U.S.' Artemis Accords, ours is much smaller in terms of countries because the U.S. is always interfering in ourcooperation with other countries, including with Europe,' Wu said, without elaborating on the interference. The Artemis Accords are a U.S.-led multilateral agreement meant to establish norms of behaviour in space and on the moon and Mars, which has over 50 signatories so far. 'China and Russia cooperate the best with each other now,' Wu said, adding that China looked forward to further cooperation with Russia on moon-based nuclear energy. Tiangong: Pakistan to send first astronaut to China's space station Recent Chinese unmanned missions to the moon, to lay the groundwork to eventually build a manned lunar base, have carried foreign payloads from countries like Pakistan, Thailand, Italy and France, raising the profile of Beijing's space diplomacy. 'ILRS is the sole mission in the world that provides equal opportunities for any country to be accepted and to participate actively by proposing payloads and satellites,' said Hernan Merino Choque, a deputy director at the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, an ILRS member and a multilateral grouping whose biggest funder is Beijing. China in February said it would train a Pakistani astronaut to join a future space flight next year to the country's Tiangong space station. This will be the first time a foreign astronaut enters the station. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the European Space Agency (ESA) ruled out joining the ILRS due to Russia's involvement. Meanwhile, U.S-China space diplomacy has been limited by the Wolf Amendment, a U.S. law passed in 2011 that banned NASA from collaboration with 'China or any Chinese-owned company unless such activities are specifically authorised.' While ESA sent a payload aboard China's latest lunar probe, the Chang'e-6 mission, it has since said there were no plans for it to join the Chang'e-7 and 8 missions, slated for next year and 2028, respectively. In 2023, the European agency said it would no longer consider sending European astronauts to the Tiangong space station.
