UAE university joins China’s moon project after Arab nation’s initial bid killed by US sanctions

A UAE university has joined China’s International Lunar Research Station, a project which aims to build a base at the moon’s south pole
It comes as the race to return to the moon heats up between China’s lunar mission and the US-led Artemis Accords

Science

Ling Xinin Ohio

Published: 4:03pm, 28 Nov 2023

Why you can trust SCMP

A national university in the United Arab Emirates has become China’s latest partner in the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project, which aims to build a permanent base near the moon’s south pole by the mid-2030s.

The UAE government initially sought China’s help in sending a rover to the moon but had to drop the plan earlier this year due to US sanctions.

A memorandum of understanding on ILRS-related cooperation was signed between the University of Sharjah and China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) last week, during the Arabic Conference of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences which took place at the university.

The two sides plan to collaborate and exchange data on lunar science and other issues, and China welcomed all Arab countries to join the project, DSEL said on its official WeChat account on Wednesday.

The new partnership brought the total number of members of the China-led ILRS to more than a dozen, as opposed to the US-led Artemis Accords which now has 32 signatories.

03:01

Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years fails as spacecraft Luna-25 crashes into the moon’s surface

Besides Russia, the national space agencies of Venezuela, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Belarus have signed up to the ILRS since July, according to official releases from the DSEL since its inauguration in February last year.

The ILRS has also attracted non-governmental organisations, including the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation, the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) in the US, and start-up nanoSPACE in Switzerland.

The ILRS partner list also includes the UAE, Argentina and Brazil, which had signed either a cooperation agreement or letter of intent with China by April, according to Wu Weiren, chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration programme and DSEL’s director general.

Negotiating with more countries as potential participants, China welcomed “all agencies, NGOs and individuals to join the ILRS at any stage and any level”, Wu told an international space exploration conference in Hefei in late April.

While the US was leading what was often seen as a race to return to the moon, China’s approach had an advantage, ILOA chairman Steve Durst said.

“The Artemis Accords is having great success on a nation-state basis, but its scope could expand from civil space agencies to the broader lunar community in democratic fashion, just like how China opens up its initiative to NGO participation,” Durst said.

An artist’s rendering of the planned International Lunar Research Station. Photo: CNSA

“If independent organisations or even individuals were allowed to join the Artemis Accords, we would have preferred to sign it even before signing the ILRS, and we still hope to do that as soon as it becomes possible.”

Both the US and China have said their programmes are open to all countries without exception. While the Wolf Amendment prohibits Nasa from engaging in bilateral cooperation with China, multilateral collaboration has been allowed.

During an interview with Russian news agency TASS last month, Nasa communications official Tiffany Travis said the agency would “leave the doors open” to its potential participation in the ILRS.

And China was not excluded from signing the Artemis Accords, said Brian Weeden from Secure World Foundation, a think tank in Washington DC.

“Politically it is difficult, but there’s nothing in law that says they can’t, and I think Nasa would be all for it if China did,” Weeden said.