China’s Roadmap is Very Clear.
1. China Reveals Bold Ambitions
The SCMP reports that a senior space official from China has confirmed plans for the country to bring samples from the surface of Mars back to Earth by 2031. If successful, China will become the first nation to return Martian samples to Earth.
With the target date set for 2031, China is poised to ‘outpace’ NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) in completing its mission to return Martian samples for research before these agencies.
According to Sun Zezhou, the chief designer of China’s first Mars mission, Tianwen 1, as well as the Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4 lunar missions, the 2031 timeline is two years ahead of the joint US-European Mars sample return mission.
A portion of the Martian terrain. NASA states that the distance between Earth and Mars varies from about 54.6 million km (at its closest) to 400.7 million km (at its farthest). (Image: NASA)
SCMP reports that, according to the plan, China will carry out the Tianwen 3 mission, which involves sending two spacecraft: one spacecraft will include a lander and a rover; the other will be an orbiter and a re-entry capsule, targeting the Red Planet in 2028.
Speaking at the 120th anniversary celebration of Nanjing University, Sun Zezhou outlined the Tianwen 3 plan, stating: After the lander touches down on Mars around September 2029, it will drill for samples and collect them. The rock and soil samples will be placed into Martian orbit, and the mission will head back to Earth around October 2030, returning ‘home’ in July 2031.
The Mars sample return mission has received support from top government and space agencies in China. The ambition to undertake this unprecedented mission was previously declared in the country’s White Paper (January 2022) and is part of the development plan of the China National Space Administration from 2021 to 2025.
2. Slow but Steady
Collecting samples from Mars for laboratory research on Earth has long been a dream of planetary scientists worldwide, Sun Zezhou said.
Now, his team is developing crucial technologies necessary for this complex mission. For instance, entering Mars’ atmosphere will be more challenging compared to Tianwen 1, as the spacecraft’s mass and velocity will significantly increase. It could easily burn up if not well shielded or crash if the parachute fails to deploy.
The research team has not yet decided whether to use solid or liquid propellant for the ascent from Mars to meet the required speed of 4.5 km/s in the harsh -60 degrees Celsius environment there.
Sun Zezhou mentioned that the team is also debating the exact timing for launching the two spacecraft. “If both spacecraft are sent during the launch window from November to December 2028, we will land in a dust storm season, making our work there very difficult. If the combination of the lander and the surface vehicle is launched a bit earlier, say in May 2028, it will take longer to reach Mars* but will avoid bad weather,” he stated.
The Long March rocket series is currently China’s most powerful rocket, playing a crucial role in the nation’s space exploration journey. (Image: Su Dong/Chinadaily.com.cn)
The spacecraft will be launched separately on the Long March 5 and Long March 3B rockets.
Previous statements regarding the Tianwen 3 mission proposed using a super heavy Long March 9 rocket in the future.
In the White Paper published by the Chinese government at the beginning of 2022, Beijing affirmed: China is setting new goals in the race to become the number one space power in the world by the 2030s.
China’s Roadmap is Very Clear:
|
With this array of prominent space plans, China is clearly demonstrating its ambition to claim the top position in space exploration. All these plans, including sending humans to the Moon and exploring Mars, are also part of the larger strategy of NASA and Europe.
If the 1950s and 1960s were considered the ‘golden age’ for the US and the Soviet Union in proving their achievements in space conquest, the early decades of the 21st century are showing that China is a formidable competitor to the US and Europe.
3. The Backbone of China’s Space Program
It can be said that the Long March rocket series is the “right-hand man” of China’s space exploration program. Multiple generations of Long March rockets have been produced by Chinese engineers to launch satellites, spacecraft, space telescopes, and probes into space. Currently, Long March 5 is the most powerful rocket in the country.
Furthermore, China plans to build the super heavy Long March 9 rocket to serve even more ambitious space exploration missions, aiming to achieve the status of the world’s number one space power.
Regarding the super rocket under construction, the super Long March 9 rocket – “The Backbone” of China’s 2030 Moon landing program – is being constructed day and night in Beijing. The country plans to conduct a test launch of the Long March 9 in 2028, coinciding with the launch of the Tianwen 3 mission to Mars.
According to the plan, the Long March 9 will be one of the most powerful machines in the world when completed; it will be six times stronger than the Long March 5 rocket currently in use.
The Long March 9 is designed to carry a payload of 140 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), 50 tons to the Moon, and 44 tons to Mars, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
The chief designer of Tianwen 1 stated, China may have been a latecomer in Mars exploration, but it now plays a significant role on the international stage thanks to the technological foundation built over decades of lunar exploration.
In July 2020, China initiated its first Mars mission, Tianwen 1, which included an orbiter, a lander, and a rover carrying a total of 13 scientific instruments. The landing was successfully executed on the Utopia Planitia of Mars in May 2021.
Historic moment in China’s Tianwen 1 mission on Mars. The lander was just a few meters above the Martian surface before successfully landing in 2021. (Image: CNSA).
At the end of 2021, the Chinese government declared the Tianwen 1 mission a success. Sun Zezhou reported that so far, the orbiter has completed a global remote sensing survey of Mars, while the Zhurong rover has traveled 1,921 km south from its landing point.
In this context, the US (specifically NASA) and Europe (specifically the European Space Agency – ESA) are collaborating on an even more complex mission to bring samples from Mars back to Earth, some of which are currently being collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover.
In March 2022, NASA announced a plan to delay the next phase of the Mars sample return campaign and split a landing mission into two separate spacecraft to reduce overall program risk.
According to the revised plan, ESA’s return orbiter to Earth will be launched in 2027, with samples expected to return to Earth in 2033 – likely two years later than China’s timeline.
[Before announcing this postponement, NASA and ESA had a clear roadmap:
In 2026, a sample-collecting lander led by NASA and a return orbiter led by ESA were to be launched to Mars. The plan was for the lander to collect samples from the Perseverance rover and place them into a rocket called the MAV. The Martian samples were planned to be collected by the orbiter, which would use the collection mechanism provided by NASA, and return to Earth in 2031].
With the US-European mission occurring later than the original plan and China’s mission likely advancing, China could become the first nation to bring Martian soil and rock samples back to Earth – an achievement that no country has accomplished in history!
To date, only a few countries in the world have successfully explored Mars. In addition to the United States and China, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency (ESA), India, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have launched orbiters to the Red Planet, with some missions succeeding and others failing.
Notes in the article:
(*) NASA states that the distance between Earth and Mars ranges from approximately 54.6 million kilometers (at its closest) to 400.7 million kilometers (at its farthest).
The differences in distance between these two planets are due to their elliptical orbits. To save travel time and fuel, planetary scientists carefully calculate to choose the most suitable moments to launch spacecraft to Mars.
