As NASA is preparing for the Artemis 3 crewed Mission to Moon scheduled to be launched late 2025, NASA recently released the locations of its landing site located within 6Deg of lat of south pole where the sites are nearly 15 by 15 km in size. On the other hand, China is preparing Chang’e – 7 mission for late 2024 and has identified 10 locations located near to the south pole of the moon. Chang-e – 7 is a uncrewed mission with a relay satellite, rover, lander, orbiter and mini flying detector to look out for the presence of water.

The overlapping landing locations identified between the two countries are Shacklathon, Haworth and Noblie crater. The reasons behind these locations are very strategic for both the countries as they provide better elevation and optimum lighting conditions to carry out their respective mission activities. The idea of the mission is also to be near to the permanently shadowed craters/regions (PSR) which are reasoned to have water and other volatiles. Since PSR are very cold and do not receive sunlight because of its geographical coordinates they have temperature nearly-230 degree Celsius making it a a region of potential traps for methane, carbon dioxide, ammonia and many more.

Now because of the overlap of the landing sites established by both the countries it becomes a challenge who will land where? With the wolf amendment passed by US government in 2011 which prohibits the NASA to engage with Chinese Space organization without US government’s approval will make it difficult to have a clarity for both the space programs

According to reports by NASA, it will narrow down its landing sites more by the time launch date comes closer, but such reports give us an idea about the challenges which the space programs of different countries will face over the period of time not only in terms of space exploration but also communications. https://spacenews.com/nasa-and-china-are-eyeing-the-same-landing-sites-near-the-lunar-south-pole/