China sets historic Mars mission for 2028 as US plan remains in limbo

In the race for the red planet, China has taken the lead, with its Tianwen-3 mission launch date brought forward two years

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China is set to bring forward its Mars mission launch date, while US space agency Nasa is struggling with delays and cost blowouts to get its Mars rock samples back to Earth. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:00pm, 6 Sep 2024Updated: 4:26pm, 25 Sep 2024

China is on track to launch its Tianwen-3 mission to Mars in 2028, two years earlier than previously planned, while the US’ sample mission to the planet is in limbo amid major delays and ballooning budgets.

On Thursday, Liu Jizhong, chief designer of China’s Mars mission, told the Second International Conference on Deep Space Exploration in Huangshan, Anhui province, that the team aimed to bring back around 600 grams (21 oz) of Martian soil.

The timeline for the mission has also been updated from an earlier 2030 estimate, a change that suggests a rising confidence by China in its ability to get the technology right for the complex operation, according to Namrata Goswami, a space policy researcher at Arizona State University in the US.

A 2028 launch date should see Martian samples returned to Earth around July 2031, according to a previous presentation made by Tianwen-1 mission lead Sun Zezhou at Nanjing University in 2022.

It is a bet that, if it pays off, could see China take the lead in the race for Mars. And, Goswami said, whichever country was first to complete a successful Mars mission would become the global leader in space exploration.

“It would mean that nation has achieved the ability to safely land, collect samples, launch a rocket from Mars and transport the samples 33 million miles [53 million km] back to Earth,” she said.