ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the former’s first lunar rover to be included in Beijing’s Chang’E 8 mission, the national space agency in Islamabad said.
The Chang’E 8 mission is a robotic exploration of the lunar south pole expected to launch in 2028. Last year, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Pakistan’s space program, said its rover would land on the lunar south pole in 2028 as part of the Chang’ E 8 mission but a formal agreement has now been signed during a visit by President Asif Ali Zardari to China this week.
“Pakistan has made a significant leap in deep space exploration with the signing of a historic MoU between SUPARCO and the China National Space Administration,” the Pakistani agency said in a press release on Thursday.
Pakistan’s participation in the mission was a “milestone” in the country’s space program and its contribution to the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) initiative, the statement added.
“SUPARCO’s lunar rover will be deployed at the Moon’s south pole,” it said. “The rover will carry advanced scientific payloads developed by SUPARCO and an internationally designed scientific payload created through collaboration between Chinese and European scientists.”
The combined effort of Pakistan and China will enhance the mission’s capability to conduct an in-depth analysis of the lunar surface, the statement said, with Pakistani scientists able to operate the rover from Earth, map the lunar surface, study lunar soil composition, radiation levels and plasma properties and test new technologies for sustainable human presence.
Last May, Pakistan launched its first lunar satellite aboard China’s Chang’e-6 probe, which successful landed on the moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater on the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth. The mission returned to earth in June, making China the first to bring back samples from the moon’s far side.