Current Plans 2026-2029

As in our mission statements our plans are to build capacity, national and international connectivity, innovation and collaboration so we emerge as a powerful Hong Kong University force. This is especially with our upgraded and dedicated foci on Space Missions, Space Sustainability and the NewSpace economy in the Greater Bay Area and indeed globally.

Our first Space mission was in July 25th 2020 when we launched the Lobster Eye X-ray Satellite with our close partner Nanjing University. This was the first such space science mission for this technology and, most importantly, the first science satellite  ever co-led by the University of Hong Kong. It was a pathfinder for the highly successful Chinese Einstein Probe mission that uses an array of lobster eye telescopes.

For 2026 through to 2029 we have several approved and funded major space missions:

1) Our largely LSR funded Chinese Chang’E 7 wide field lunar camera  “ILO-C”. This is an approved international mission payload to ILOA but with the LSR in Hong Kong and NARIT in Thailand as partners.  The camera, completed by BISME in Beijing to LSR design requirements was integrated onto the lunar lander in late 2025. It has a scheduled touch down on the rim of the Shackleton crater on the lunar South polar region in late November 2026.

2) Our ITSP award of $33.67milliomn HKD under the “one off” Aerospace call from HKSAR government is for a 12U CubeSat to go into lunar orbit in 2028. It will be equipped with a hyperspectral camera and high sensitivity optical camera for “lunar flash” detection resulting from micro-meteorite impacts on the lunar surface. This is as apart of risk and threat assessment for lunar habitats. Together with at least $50million in-kind from our ASES partner in Shanghai, for the cis-lunar transport to get our CubeSat to the moon, and $20million promised from the HK International Aerospace Charitable foundation the mission funding envelope exceeds $100million HKD

3) Our most recent success is with an approved International payload to be on board the Chinese Tianwen 3 Mars sample return mission along with our COSPAR and Shenzhen University payloads. A formal announcement will come in April during the China Space days. HKU-LSR will be the main scientific leader for the mission with our excellent partners in Shenzhen and France. We have some funding for the payload but will be seeking more to maximise the scientific exploitation of the spectral camera that has an exciting science program – this is our most significant mission to date.

4) We are also embarking on a strong drive and push for HKSAR and the LSR to take a fundamental and international role in the increasingly serious issue of Space Sustainability.

We have developed our so called S3+1 initiative: Space: Safety, Science and Sustainability, specifically with this goal in mind. This is off the back of our Space Sustainability conference held in December 2024 at HKU and the second version to be run as a parallel meeting under the Asia Pacific Meeting of the IAU to be held in the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre in May 4-8 2026. We envision this as our most impactful program going forward if we can achieve this.

5) Finally, we are actively exploring the opportunities for the LSR in the NewSpace economy where laboratories like ours can partner with commercial aerospace companies for mutual benefit.

We are hopeful for success with all these major LSR initiatives overt the coming years. They will strengthen and expand our base, influence, impact and outputs and help promote and contribute to Mainland projects and collaborations.