US Scientists Gain Rare Access to Chinese Moon Rocks for Groundbreaking Research

In a historic first, American scientists have been granted access to moon rocks brought back by China’s Chang’e-5 mission, marking a rare moment of scientific cooperation between the United States and China despite ongoing political and technological tensions.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has agreed to lend samples from its 2020 lunar mission to Brown University in Rhode Island and Stony Brook University in New York. This decision required special clearance from the US Congress, since both universities had previously received NASA funding and needed approval to collaborate with the Chinese space agency.

The samples were collected from the Ocean of Storms, a vast lunar region on the moon’s near side. The Chang’e-5 mission successfully returned to Earth with approximately 1.73 kilograms of lunar material—significantly younger than the samples collected during past missions by NASA’s Apollo program or the former Soviet Union. Some of these rocks are estimated to be around a billion years younger, offering scientists a new window into the moon’s volcanic history and geologic evolution.

Chinese researchers have already uncovered remarkable insights from the samples, including evidence suggesting volcanic activity on the moon as recently as 120 million years ago—much more recent than previously believed.

In total, the CNSA received requests from 11 countries to study the moon rocks. Alongside the US institutions, China approved requests from universities and research agencies in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and Pakistan. These include the University of Cologne, Osaka University, the Open University, the Paris Institute of Planetary Physics, and Pakistan’s national space agency SUPARCO.

The decision to share these samples reflects China’s stated commitment to international cooperation in space exploration. The CNSA emphasized its principles of peaceful use, mutual benefit, and scientific collaboration, expressing hope that shared research would benefit all of humanity by expanding our understanding of the moon and the broader solar system.

While China has opened its lunar treasure to the world, efforts to secure reciprocal access to American lunar materials appear to have stalled. Although talks have reportedly taken place for Chinese researchers to study Apollo-era samples, the US has yet to respond formally to such requests.

Still, this gesture from China stands as a notable example of how space exploration continues to transcend political boundaries and foster global scientific discovery. With new data expected from regions of the moon never before studied by American scientists, the research could yield breakthroughs in understanding the moon’s geologic past—and potentially, its future use in human exploration.