In winter 2020 and summer 2024, the Chinese space missions Chang'e 5 and 6 collected rock samples from the moon and brought fresh lunar rock back to Earth for the first time in more than 50 years. Chang'e 6 even took samples from the far side of the moon. The Chang'e 6 samples are the first ever from the far side of the moon.

After three years, these unique samples will also be made available to researchers outside China. Prof Carsten Münker has submitted an application to the Chinese space agency CNSA to obtain lunar samples from the Chang'e 5 mission. This involves 2g of the valuable rock, which the geochemistry/cosmochemistry working group led by Carsten Münker would like to analyse to gain new insights into the geological features of parts of the moon on which no spacecraft has ever landed. The Cologne team has 20 years of experience in analysing moon rocks and has been working successfully with American NASA for a long time, which brought 350 kg of moon rock to Earth in the 1970s. 

On 4 December 2024, an 11-member delegation from the Chinese CNSA (Chinese National Space Administration) visited the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy to meet the applicants in person. In addition to the geologists and cosmochemists, the Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Prof Georg Bareth, and Katja Yang, Head of the Department of International Affairs, followed the reports on the successful Chang'e 6 mission and future CNSA missions, which are intended to lead to the construction of a permanent moon base.

After an overview of the scientific expertise in the Cologne working group, the Chinese delegation was very interested in the laboratory tour of the mass spectrometers and the clean room laboratories for sample preparation, where the simultaneous translations by Dr. Ruiyu Yang and Dr. Xiaoyu Zhou from the geochemistry/cosmochemistry working group were very helpful.

The event's highlight was the announcement by the CNSA deputy director that the Cologne application has been scientifically approved and is now awaiting final approval by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Another highlight for Cologne was certainly the presentation of a model of the Chang'e 6 lunar sample, which will be given a place of honor in the GeoMuseum.

We are now hoping for the final positive news from China regarding when we at the University of Cologne will receive the final go-ahead for the lunar samples.