China's Lunar Sample Sharing Boosts Collaboration

China's sharing of lunar samples has played a positive role in promoting international scientific collaboration, demonstrating the country's open - minded attitude towards space exploration and the important value of global scientific research cooperation. The specific manifestations are as follows:Formulating management regulations and promoting standardized cooperation: China National Space Administration has successively formulated the *Lunar Sample Management Measures* and the *Implementation Rules for International Cooperation on Lunar Samples and Scientific Data*, detailing the application process for lunar sample research and the specific information on international cooperation, welcoming scientific researchers from various countries to apply according to the relevant processes, which provides a policy - based guarantee for international cooperation and ensures the standardized development of lunar sample sharing.Sharing samples and expanding the scope of cooperation: According to the results of the international loan application for Chang'e - 5 mission lunar samples released by the China National Space Administration on April 24, 2025, the loan applications of 7 institutions from 6 countries, including the Institute of Geophysics of Paris, France, the University of Cologne, Germany, and Osaka University, Japan, have passed the review. These institutions can obtain the lunar samples brought back by the Chang'e - 5 mission for scientific research, which expands the scope of international cooperation and enables more scientific research forces to participate in lunar research.Breaking through political barriers and promoting scientific exchanges: Although the Wolf Amendment in the United States restricts NASA's cooperation with the China National Space Administration, China still provides samples to American scientists. For example, the research group of Timothy Glotch from Stony Brook University in the United States has obtained Chang'e - 5 samples, which allows for a direct comparison between Apollo - era lunar samples and Chang'e - 5 samples, helping to unlock new insights into the moon's geological history. This shows that scientific curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge can break through political barriers, and China is promoting scientific exchanges with an open - minded attitude.Complementary research results and deepening the understanding of the moon: The samples brought back by the Chang'e - 5 mission were collected from the volcanic region of Mons Rümker, which are significantly younger than the Apollo samples. Through the comparative analysis of these samples by international scientific research teams, it is helpful to test the hypothesis of lunar activities millions of years ago, and is of great significance for understanding the moon's geological evolution, volcanic activities and other aspects, promoting the deepening of human understanding of the moon.Carrying international payloads and strengthening cooperation foundation: When the Chang'e - 6 mission was launched, it carried a radon detector from France, a lunar surface negative ion analyzer from the European Space Agency, a CubeSat from Pakistan, and a laser corner reflector from Italy. This shows that China has carried out in - depth cooperation with international partners in the process of lunar exploration. The sharing of subsequent lunar samples is based on this cooperation foundation, which will further strengthen the close - knit relationship between China and international scientific research institutions.