China’s National Space Administration marked the opening of the 11th China Space Day on Friday with two major announcements: the identification of two previously unknown lunar minerals from the Chang’e-5 sample return, and the confirmation of a 2028 launch and 2031 return for the Tianwen-3 Mars sample-return mission. Both fit into a longer strategic horizon for which China has built an operational program in which lunar and Martian samples are studied not only for what they reveal about the history of the solar system, but as the knowledge base for a permanent human presence beyond Earth. The in-situ utilization of lunar and Martian resources, including the rare earths critical to modern industry, will make the difference between humanity’s brief visits to other worlds and its development and settlement of them.
The two new minerals, magnesiochangesite-(Y) and changesite-(Ce), have been officially recognized and classified by the International Mineralogical Association. They follow the 2022 discovery of changesite-(Y), the first new lunar mineral identified by Chinese scientists. The three are the only new lunar minerals found outside the U.S. Apollo program. Under international mineralogical naming rules, any future mineral in the same series, no matter who discovers it, will use “changesite” as its root name.
Both minerals are rare-earth phosphates. Magnesiochangesite-(Y), discovered by a team led by Li Ziying of the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology, was found in basalt fragments from drilled lunar samples; its crystals measure 2 to 30 micrometers across—roughly one-thirtieth the diameter of a human hair. Changesite-(Ce), discovered by a team led by Hou Zengqian of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, was identified in both Chang’e-5 soil and Pakepake 005, the first lunar meteorite officially recovered in China. Hou noted a significant contrast between Apollo and Chang’e-5 samples: Apollo material is enriched in heavy rare-earth elements, while Chang’e-5 material is enriched in light rare-earth elements, evidence of significant rare-earth differentiation during the Moon’s magmatic evolution. The discoveries provide, in Hou’s words, “fundamental data for assessing the Moon’s rare-earth resource potential and future in-situ resource utilization.”