China sends major mission to Mars to overtake US

For the first time, Chinese officials have openly announced the timing of the Tianwen-3 mission to Mars, which involves delivering rock samples from the Red Planet to Earth faster than the United States can do, writes Interesting Engineering.

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China could beat the United States in the space race, which is to see who can quickly bring scientifically valuable rock samples from Mars to our planet for further study. These samples could reveal the geological history of Mars and may also contain signs of extraterrestrial life.

At the China Space Conference held recently in Wuhan, Chinese officials for the first time openly announced their ambitious plans to send the Tianwen-3 mission to Mars in 2030. This mission involves sending a lander and an orbiter to the Red Planet. The first must collect samples of Martian rock, and the second must deliver them to Earth.

This was announced by the chief designer of the Chinese lunar program, Wu Weiren. According to him, he believes that China will become the first country in the world that will be able to deliver samples from Mars to Earth. Wu Weiren also said that China has begun planning a project to build the world’s first laboratory for studying samples from Mars. According to the designer, all key technologies for the Tianwen-3 mission have already been created and are being improved and tested.

To date, the United States and China are the only countries that have managed to soft-land spacecraft on the surface of Mars. It is worth recalling that China is so far the only country in the last 50 years that has managed to deliver rock samples from the Moon to Earth since NASA astronauts last did so in 1972. As for Mars, in 2021 China successfully landed its rover on the Red Planet, which has already ceased its work.

NASA has also been developing a mission for several years to return samples of local rock to Earth, called Mars Sample Return. It was planned that samples collected by the Perseverance rover on the Red Planet would be delivered to Earth by 2033.

But the mission budget grew first from 4 to 7 billion dollars, and then to 11 billion. Thus, NASA had to abandon its original plans, as already written Focus. As it became known earlier in April, NASA decided to revise its plans for a mission to deliver samples from Mars to Earth. It turned out that even with a budget of $11 billion, it will not be possible to deliver Martian samples until 2040. Therefore, the US space agency is looking for options on how to make the mission cheaper so that it takes place earlier.

As I already wrote FocusNASA’s Mars rover has discovered emissions of methane on the Red Planet that could be linked to living things. But so far the source of the methane that is below the surface has not been identified.

We remind you that a Japanese company sent a new spacecraft into orbit to test space debris removal technology. During the mission, the device took a picture of the upper stage of a Japanese rocket, which has been circling in orbit since 2009, as already written Focus.