China is preparing for 2028 a new mission to Mars aimed at taking soil samples to be brought back to Earth by 2030, therefore before the Mars Sample Return mission of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) which currently points to 2031. The announcement, we read on the website 'spacenews.com', was given by Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of the first Chinese mission to Mars Tianwen-1, on the occasion of a conference on space exploration organized in recent weeks in Shenzhen by ' Chinese Academy of Engineering.
The new Mars mission, which should be called Tianwen-2, will likely use two rockets: Long March 3B, to launch the lander and ascent module, and Long March 5, which will launch the orbiter and reentry capsule.
According to reports during the conference, the mission should have recently passed a major overhaul and, if it meets the schedule, it could be the first to bring a sample of Mars back to Earth to study its geology and to look for any traces of life.
Before attempting this unprecedented adventure, China will try to collect and bring back to Earth other samples from an asteroid close to us, called Kamoʻoalewa: it will do so with a mission scheduled for 2024, which will subsequently continue towards Comet Panstarrs.
