Video call is the first meeting between the new ESA director general Josef Aschbacher and the CNSA chief, Zhang Kejian.
HELSINKI – The heads of the European Space Agency and the National Space Administration of China held a video call on April 1 to set out the various plans for the coming year.
Zhang Kejian, administrator of the CNSA, and the new director general of the ESA, Josef Aschbacher, who took office on March 1, discussed a series of topics according to a brief press release from CNSA (Chinese).
The parties outlined the upcoming activities, with China recently approving a 14th five-year plan for 2021-2025, and discussing lunar and deep space exploration, earth observation and cooperation at the ground station.
Josef Aschbacher tweeted after the meeting that he congratulated Zhang on the Chang’e 5 moon monster, which took place in December 2020. delivered to Earth 1.73 kilograms of lunar samples from Oceanus Procellarum on the moon’s near side.
I just met Mr. Zhang Kejian, head of the Chinese National Space Administration, meets. I congratulated him on the recent recovery of lunar monsters by the Chang’e 5 mission. I look forward to the scientific achievements of this unique mission!
– Josef Aschbacher (@AschbacherJosef) 1 April 2021
Karl Bergquist, ESA’s International Relations Administrator, said SpaceNews that ESA and CNSA have engaged in ongoing activities, including telemetry, detection and control of support activities for the Chinese exploration program.
ESA has assisted both the recent Chang’e-5 and ongoing Mars Tianwen-1 missions with ground station support.
“We have a number of Earth observation working groups investigating issues of common interest,” Bergquist said, including data exchange, data for global monitoring of change, calibration and validation, and more.
Asked about possible involvement with the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a project for China and Russia recently launched a memorandum of understanding, Bergquist said the CNSA administrator called the initiative and also reported on the recent agreement with Russia.
The ILRS is understood initially involved upcoming Chinese robot Chang’e-lander, rover, orbit and other spacecraft and Russian Luna missions central to the south pole of the moon. It could be expanded to include more permanent robotic infrastructures and potential crew visits in the 2030s.
Zhang said both China and Russia want the ILRS to be open to cooperation from all countries, including ESA.
Bergquist expects discussions to continue in some form in the future, but at present there is “not much detail on the content of the ILRS”, and as such there is no ESA position on this topic.
ESA and China was discuss collaboration on potential lunar South Pole missions in recent years. The two parties previously collaborated on the Double Star project and are working on the Solar Wind Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Link Explorer mission (SMILE) which is scheduled to be launched in 2023.