This Southeast Asian country is one of the few nations that China has agreed to collaborate with on its massive lunar project.
China and Thailand Collaborate on Chang’e-7
According to the latest space science news from SCMP and NARIT, China and Thailand will work together on the upcoming Chang’e-7 lunar mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2026.
Specifically, Thailand will accompany China’s Chang’e-7 mission by providing scientific instruments to study space weather and cosmic rays aboard the Chang’e-7 spacecraft to monitor lunar weather.
The moon is China’s ambitious destination. (Photo: Shutterstock).
The device, named China-Thailand Space Weather Monitoring Sensor Package, developed by the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT), is one of seven international instruments selected to fly with the Chang’e-7 mission in 2026.
This device is currently in the technical design phase, according to Dr. Peerapong Torteeka, the project director.
Dr. Peerapong Torteeka stated that this 3 kg device will contain a downward-facing magnetic sensor to monitor the magnetic field and send alerts to Earth during space weather events such as solar storms.
Another upward-facing sensor will study low-energy cosmic rays in energy ranges that have never been continuously monitored before.
“In 2022, when China proposed the integration of international instruments for Chang’e-7, we decided to bring Thailand’s scientific instrument aboard the lunar orbiter because we have limited experience in how things operate on the lunar surface,” Dr. Peerapong Torteeka said.
The China-Thailand Space Weather Monitoring Sensor Package will be integrated on China’s Chang’e-7 orbiter. (Photo: CNS).
Months later, he mentioned that the research team was very excited—and somewhat surprised—to learn that their proposal ranked second in the preliminary selection conducted by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
Now, Peerapong Torteeka and his colleagues from NARIT, Chiang Mai University, and Mahidol University in Bangkok are collaborating with Chinese partners from the National Space Science Center in Beijing, along with other collaborators, to refine the detailed design and core technologies of the device.
Dr. Peerapong Torteeka, who spent six years in Beijing to earn his PhD in aerospace engineering, indicated that the plan is for the device to be transported to China for assembly and testing by the end of 2024, in time for the official Chang’e-7 launch in 2026.
Visitors view a model of China’s lunar exploration spacecraft at an exhibition of space science and deep-sea achievements in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, in May 2021. (Photo: Xinhua).
The CNSA stated that Chang’e-7 will consist of an orbiter, a lander, a rover, a small probe, and a relay satellite, and will carry over 10 instruments developed by Chinese scientists.
According to NASA data, Chang’e-7, implemented by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), aims to achieve four missions:
- 1. Gather information about the inner structure of the moon, its mineral/element composition, electric and magnetic fields, heat flow, and gravitational field;
- 2. Study the distribution and sources of water and volatiles on the moon, as well as directly confirm the presence and sources of water ice on the moon;
- 3. Capture high-resolution images of energetic neutral particles in Earth’s magnetotail;
- 4. Investigate the lunar environment, including surface magnetic fields, lunar dust, and radiation to clarify the causes of surface anomalies.
China Calls for International Partners to Join ILRS
In November 2022, with the aim of expanding international cooperation, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) issued a call for space partners to collaborate, offering an international payload in the mission to the Moon’s South Pole (Chang’e-7), including up to 15 kg of equipment on the orbiter and 10 kg on the lander.
According to Science and Technology Daily, by April 2023, 18 proposals from 11 countries had been received.
In a list obtained by SCMP, seven of those proposals have passed preliminary selection and are currently in the technical design phase.
These include a hyperspectral imager for ice and lunar surface materials; lunar dust and electric field detectors; a lunar telescope; and various instruments for analyzing negative ions on the moon.
The proposals come from research organizations and non-governmental organizations in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America.
With the goal of launching in 2026, Chang’e-7 will pave the way for the establishment of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a base that China and international partners plan to build on the moon for scientific exploration and resource utilization in the 2030s.
Founded in 2004, the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) is the largest space research organization in Thailand.
It is expected that the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Chiang Mai, operated by NARIT, will be used to track the spacecraft’s orbit during the ILRS construction missions.
In September 2023, Thailand officially joined the ILRS project led by China after the NARIT delegation and the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) of CNSA signed a memorandum of understanding regarding Chang’e-7 and ILRS-related collaboration in Beijing on September 25, 2023.
South Africa and Azerbaijan have also become partners in the ILRS project in recent weeks.
Summary of China’s Chang’e-5 mission in 2020. (Photo: VCG).
The ILRS project was originally initiated by China and Russia together.
However, at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), which had over 5,000 delegates attending, held in early October 2023 in the capital of Baku, Azerbaijan, a senior Chinese official did not mention Russia’s precursor missions to build the ILRS [including the Luna-25, Luna-26, 27, and 28 missions by the Russian space agency Roscosmos].
Some space observers believe that China has “turned its back” on Russia after a series of failures and technical issues from the Luna-25 mission to coolant leaks from their spacecraft.
Others are optimistic, stating that the Russia-China relationship in space remains important, and that China’s actions at the IAC were merely aimed at persuading other partner nations to engage more deeply in the ILRS.
At the IAC, the Deputy Director of the Lunar Exploration Program of China detailed the missions of Chang’e 6, 7, and 8.
The most recent mission, Chang’e-5, landed on the moon in December 2020 and quickly returned 1.7 kg of lunar rocks and soil to Earth. These were the first samples returned from the moon in about 44 years, according to CNSA.
In a related context, in September 2023, Germany became the 29th country to sign the Artemis Accords led by the United States. NASA’s Artemis program is parallel to China’s ILRS project, aimed at sending humans to the moon and building a base there.
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