BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) — China’s mission to retrieve samples from Mars will advance to the flight model development part inside this yr, Liu Jizhong, chief designer of the Tianwen-3 mission, mentioned on Thursday.
Building on the preliminary technical analysis and demonstrations, the mission has achieved breakthroughs in key applied sciences. The engineering workforce is now targeted on creating prototypes, Liu, additionally a nationwide legislator, advised reporters.
The Mars sample return mission is scheduled for launch round 2028, with the aim of returning a minimum of 500 grams of Martian samples to Earth by round 2031.
International scientists are invited to collaborate in advancing deep house exploration know-how development and engineering, in accordance to Liu.
In phrases of engineering, the mission is creating an orbiter, a returner, a lander, an ascender, and a service module, which can compose the orbiter-returner complicated and the lander-ascender-service module complicated.
The development work additionally contains attaining breakthroughs in key applied sciences equivalent to Martian floor sampling and sealing, Martian floor takeoff and ascent, Mars orbital rendezvous, sample seize and switch, and planetary safety.
The mission is anticipated to seek for potential indicators of life on Mars, examine Martian geological formation, and look at Martian environment, with the target of creating main discoveries in the research of liveable evolution of terrestrial planets.
“The Tianwen-3 mission represents a highly challenging, innovative and pioneering major space endeavor,” mentioned Liu. “It is expected to achieve humanity’s first Mars sample return mission, thus significantly advancing the integrated development of space science, space technology and space applications.”
Liu additionally famous that China’s Tianwen-2 probe, launched in 2025, has traveled roughly 700 million kilometers and can attain the near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3 this yr to start flying round it for exploration. ■
