China opens up opportunities for global collaboration in its Chang'e-8 lunar exploration mission, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Monday at the ongoing 74th International Astronautical Congress held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Chang'e-8 mission, an important task in the fourth phase of the country's lunar exploration program, is scheduled for launch around 2028. 

China "welcomes countries and international organizations to join and carry out cooperation on tasks, systems and facilities, to jointly achieve more significant original scientific discoveries," said the CNSA.

It will carry out a slew of research, such as geological detection and research on multiple locations and areas on the moon, observation and research of Earth from the moon, lunar in-situ sample analysis and resource use, and research on the small-scale enclosed terrestrial ecosystem on the lunar surface.

Preference will be given to international cooperation bids at mission-level involving interaction between different spacecraft and joint exploration, development on robots with basic lunar surface operation capabilities, complementary scientific payloads and other highly innovative scientific projects, said the CNSA.

The Chang'e-8 lander will set aside 200 kilograms of its payload resources for international partners, but any standalone module for collaboration must be less than 100 kg.

The deadline for submission of Chang'e-8 proposals for international cooperation is December 31, 2023. The preliminary and final selections will be completed by April and September next year, respectively, as planned.

The CNSA also said the Chang'e-8 spacecraft and its predecessor, Chang'e-7, are expected to form the basic module of a lunar research station.

China plans to launch the Chang'e-7 lunar probe around 2026 to conduct resource exploration of the lunar south pole. Before that, the Chang'e-6 probe will be sent to collect samples from the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon around 2024.

The Chang'e-5, launched in 2020, was the country's most recent mission to the moon, which brought back 1,731g of lunar samples on December 17, 2020.

The Chang'e-5 team was awarded the 2023 Laurels for Team Achievement by the International Academy of Astronautics on Sunday.