China Details Plans to Return Mars Samples Two Years Before NASA-ESA

Mars from Hubble: Astronomers took advantage of a rare close approach by Mars in 2001. When the Red Planet was just 43 million miles away, Hubble snapped this picture with the WFPC2. It has a surface resolution of just 10 miles. This is the best image we’ve gotten of Mars that didn’t involve sending a robot there.

NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently trundling around the red planet, doing science and collecting samples. Those samples are destined to return to Earth in the 2030s with the European Space Agency’s (ESA) help, but China now says it is planning a Mars mission that could get samples back home even sooner than that. The proposed Tianwen-3 would have a simpler design than the NASA-ESA initiative, and it could result in pristine bits of Mars returning to Earth as soon as 2031. 

Sun Zezhou, the designer of China’s Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and rover, delivered a presentation on June 20th as part of a celebration marking the 120th anniversary of Nanjing University. According to Sun, it may be possible to launch the proposed sample collection mission as soon as 2028, and a probe could return with the materials in 2031. That’s two years earlier than the best case NASA-ESA estimates. 

NASA has opted to split its sample return into multiple parts to lessen the risk, but that means it’s going to take longer. Perseverance is already collecting samples in its ultra-clean sealed tubes, but the next phase of the mission will consist of several parts. There’s a lander with a small rover that will physically collect the tubes from Perseverance, a lander with the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) to take them into orbit, and then a spacecraft in orbit will pick up the samples and head home. SpaceNews notes that the ESA isn’t planning to launch the return vehicle until 2027, and the earliest the samples could return home is 2033. 

The Chinese proposal consists of two launches using Chinese Long March rockets. One will feature a lander with a four-legged robot designed only for sample collection and an ascent vehicle. The second part of the mission will be the orbital return craft, which will pick up the ascent vehicle before setting course for Earth. 

Mars sample return mission of China, presented by Sun Zezhou, the chief designer of the Tianwen-1 mission. Two launches and returning at the July of 2031. #CNSAhttps://t.co/DCAs6uoArq pic.twitter.com/VPMcerxvfm

— Yuqi Qian (@YuqiiQian) June 20, 2022

According to Sun, the mission will leverage the experience gained from 2020’s Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission, along with the descent and landing technologies demonstrated with Tianwen-1. The landings could take place as soon as 2029. The robot won’t travel around Mars for years, getting cores from different regions — it will get what it came for, and then rendezvous with the ascent vehicle. That means the return module could leave Mars orbit as soon as 2030, reaching Earth in July 2031. 

This initiative reportedly has the support of China’s top space and government authorities. The importance of collecting samples from Mars was cited in the China National Space Administration’s 2021-2025 development plans. Before Tianwen-3, China plans to launch Tianwen-2, which is an asteroid sampling mission. There will also be an aerobraking test with the Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter to validate part of the Tianwen-3 plan.

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