The Tianwen-3 spacecraft, scheduled for launch around 2030, could help China become the first country to successfully return Martian samples to Earth.
Wu Weiren, the chief designer of the China Lunar Exploration Program, predicts that China may beat the United States in the race to bring rock samples from the Red Planet back to Earth, as reported by MSN on April 26. “China will launch the Tianwen-3 spacecraft around 2030 to carry out the mission of bringing Martian samples back,” Wu Weiren stated during a speech at the China Space Symposium in Wuhan, Hubei. “Given the progress worldwide, we will become the first country to transport samples from Mars.”
China’s Zhurong rover on Mars. (Photo: CGTN).
Wu is the first Chinese official in the aerospace sector to publicly make such a prediction. He also revealed that China has begun planning for the world’s first Martian sample laboratory project. Sun Zezhou, Wu’s colleague and the chief designer of the Tianwen-1 Mars mission in 2021, previously disclosed that all key technologies for Tianwen-3 are ready and progress is proceeding smoothly.
China and the United States are the only two countries to have successfully landed on Mars, one of the places in the solar system where life may exist and a critical target for exploration. NASA had hoped to return Martian rock samples to Earth around 2030. The U.S. Perseverance rover has collected several sample tubes and placed them on the Martian surface for future retrieval.
However, the program’s costs skyrocketed from $4 billion to $11 billion, forcing NASA to abandon its initial plans. If NASA cannot secure enough funding for the $11 billion mission, it will not be able to bring samples back to Earth before 2040. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson shared that they are considering proposals for a faster and cheaper solution to recover the samples.
NASA’s exploration of Mars began five decades ago. In 1976, their Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers became the first spacecraft to land on the Red Planet. Landing attempts by the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency were unsuccessful. China joined the Mars exploration relatively late. In 2021, their Tianwen-1 spacecraft successfully deployed an orbiter, along with a lander and rover, onto the Martian surface.
