China Launched Its Mission to Get Asteroid Samples

Beijing, May 29: At 1:13 a.m., China launched its mission to obtain samples from nearby asteroids with the Long March 3B rocket. With this successful launch, China has become the third country to collect asteroid samples.

China has rapidly expanded its space program, with ambitious plans for lunar exploration, Mars missions, and asteroid sample returns. To pace up the space expedition competition, China has launched a mission named Tianwen-2 (formerly known as ZhengHe) to retrieve samples from a near-Earth asteroid.

The Tianwen-2 robot will reach the near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa next year. This asteroid lies between 9 million miles and 244 million miles away. The robot is expected to reach it by July of next year, sending samples back by the end of 2027. Upon reaching it, it’ll analyze the asteroid and collect sample rocks while manoeuvring over it. The collected samples would be placed in a return capsule, which would then be sent back to Earth for a controlled reentry and landing.

Then it’ll travel towards the second target located between Jupiter and – Mars Asteroid belt. It’ll be a journey spanning over years, to comet 311P/PanSTARRS, which is about 87 million miles away from Earth.

Once on Earth, the samples would be studied by scientists to understand the early solar system, the origins of water and organic molecules, and the potential resources asteroids might hold.

Retrieving samples from an asteroid and returning them to Earth is incredibly complex and technically demanding. Before China, only Japan and the USA had been able to collect samples from Asteroids.