By all accounts, the Chinese Chang’e 5 sample return mission to the moon has been a complete success. The space probe landed on the lunar surface, drilled and scooped up a quantity of soil and rock, and took off again. The success of the mission undertaken by the communist country has elicited some tired but often repeated suggestions that world peace could be created with joint space missions between China and the United States.

Louis Friedman, one of the co-founders of the Planetary Society, made the proposal in the pages of Space News.