Lunar samples gathered from both the near and far sides of the Moon will be exhibited together at the 16th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, known as Airshow China, the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense announced Tuesday in Beijing.
Visitors will be able to examine side by side the differences between the lunar material returned by the Chang'e-5 mission from the Moon's near side and the samples brought back by Chang'e-6 from the far side, said Yi Lin, an official with the administration, at a press conference held to preview the event.
The exhibition is scheduled to run from December 7 to 13 in Zhuhai, a coastal city in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Organizers said this year's edition has been expanded, with 135,000 square meters of indoor exhibition space, according to Zhang Hu, executive vice governor of Guangdong.
More than 3,000 items of equipment will be on display, roughly 10 percent of them making their public debut. The main exhibition area will feature over 170 aircraft, and more than 1,100 companies from nearly 50 countries and regions have registered to take part.
For the first time, the show will be organized around three exhibition zones: a central main area, a section dedicated to unmanned equipment, and an area for maritime equipment. The restructuring reflects the growing range of technologies China and international exhibitors are bringing to the event.
Several of China's most recent aerospace achievements will be on display. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation will present multiple models, including a first-stage engine for a heavy-lift launch vehicle and the main probe of the Tianwen-2 mission. The Aero Engine Corporation of China will exhibit nearly 90 types of aero engines, advanced materials and other products.
A forum will be held alongside the exhibition, with industry participants exchanging views on topics including commercial space, space medicine and human health. The discussions point to the widening intersection between aerospace development and medical research, an area of growing interest as longer-duration spaceflight becomes more common.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of Airshow China. Since its establishment in 1996, the event has become a major showcase for advanced aviation and aerospace technologies and equipment from both China and abroad, as well as an international platform for promoting business cooperation in the field.
The decision to display samples from both lunar hemispheres in a single venue is notable because the two sets of material come from geologically distinct regions. Chang'e-5 returned samples from the near side, while Chang'e-6 achieved the first-ever retrieval of material from the far side, a region that permanently faces away from Earth and has a different surface composition.
Placing the samples together allows researchers and the public to compare directly the physical characteristics of material formed in different parts of the Moon, offering a rare opportunity to see the contrast outside specialized laboratories.