Only 6 countries in the world are engaged in this work: China is aiming to 'usurp the throne'!

1. China reveals bold ambition

The SCMP newspaper quoted a senior Chinese space official as confirming that China plans to bring samples from the Martian surface by 2031. If this succeeds as planned, China will become a nation first brought samples of Mars back to Earth.

At the same time, with the time to achieve (return samples) of 2031, China will "surpass" NASA and ESA to complete the plan (as expected) to bring Mars samples back to Earth for research before two years. this agency.

According to Sun Zezhou, the chief designer of China's first Mars mission, Tianwen 1, as well as the Chang'e 3 and Chang'e 4 lunar missions, the 2031 timeline will soon follow. more than 2 years compared to the combined mission to collect Mars samples performed by the US - Europe.

Image of part of the terrain on Mars. According to NASA, the distance between Earth and Mars ranges from about 54.6 million km (the closest distance) to 400.7 million km (the furthest distance).

SCMP said that, according to the plan, China will carry out the Tianwen 3 mission - send two spacecraft - a spacecraft including a lander and a Mars rover; The other spacecraft is an orbiter and a re-entry capsule - which will fly to the Red Planet in 2028.

Speaking at the 120th anniversary of Nanjing University, Mr. Sun Zezhou outlined the plan of Tianwen 3, specifically: After the lander touches the surface of Mars around September 2029, it will proceed to drill to take samples of Mars and scoop them up. The soil samples will be put into orbit of Mars and the mission will return to Earth around October 2030, and then "home" in July 2031.

China's Mars-to-Earth sampling mission has received support from leading government and space agencies in the country. The country's ambition to carry out an unprecedented mission was previously stated in the government's White Paper (January 2022) and is part of the development plan of the National Space Administration of China for the next period. period 2021-2025.

2. Slowly but surely

Taking samples from Mars for research in Earth laboratories has long been a dream of planetary scientists around the world, Sun Zezhou said.

Now, his team is developing the critical technologies needed to carry out the complex task. For example, compared with Tianwen 1, entering the Martian atmosphere will be more difficult because the mass and velocity of the spacecraft will increase significantly. It can easily catch fire if not well covered or fall if the parachute is not working properly.

The team has yet to decide whether to use solid or liquid propellants to take off from Mars to meet the speed increase of 4.5 km/s and the harsh environment of -60 degrees Celsius on it.

Sun Zezhou said the team is also debating the specific timing of launching the two spacecraft. "If both spacecraft are sent during launch from November to December 2028, we will land in a dust storm season that makes our work there very difficult. If the lander complex and Mars surface rovers launched a little earlier, such as May 2028, will take longer to reach Mars* but avoid bad weather," he said.

The Long March rocket series is currently China's most powerful rocket series, playing an important role in the country's space exploration journey.

The complexes will launch separately on Long March 5 (Long March 5) and Long March 3B (Long March 3B) rockets, respectively.

Previous statements about the Tianwen 3 mission suggested the use of a Long March 9 (Long March 9) super-heavy rocket in the future.

In the Chinese government's White Paper published in early 2022, Beijing affirmed: China sets new goals in the race to become the world's No. 1 space power in the 2030s.

China's roadmap is clear:

1. End of 2022: Completion of the Chinese space station - Thien Cung name.
2. 2027: Together with Russia to build the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
3. 2028: Completing the Long March 9 super rocket; Launch spacecraft to Mars to take samples back
4. 2030: Landing on the Moon.

With this series of outstanding space plans, China is clearly showing its ambition to conquer the position of the number one power in space exploration. Because, all the plans such as sending people to the Moon, exploring Mars . are also in the big strategy of NASA and Europe.

If the 1950s and 1960s of the 20th century were the "golden time" of the US and the Soviet Union when they demonstrated their achievements in space conquest, then entering the first decades of the 21st century, China is showing signs of improvement. clearly a formidable opponent of the US and Europe.

3. The "backbone" of China's space program

It can be said that the Long March rocket series is the "effective right-hand man" of China's space exploration program. Many generations of Long March rockets have been produced by Chinese engineers to launch satellites, spacecraft, space telescopes, probes. into space. Currently, Long March 5 is the country's most powerful missile.

Not stopping there, China plans to build a super rocket Long March 9 to serve more ambitious space exploration missions, in order to pursue the position of the world's number one space power.

Talk more about this super rocket under construction. The world-class Long March 9 super rocket - the "backbone" of China's 2030 program to send people to the Moon - is being built by Beijing day and night. The country intends to test-launch Long March 9 in 2028 [the same year the Tianwen 3 mission went to Mars].

According to the plan, super rocket Long March 9 will be one of the most powerful machines in the world when completed; and 6 times more powerful than the Long March 5 rocket that the country is using.

Long March 9 is designed with a 140-ton Low Earth Orbit (LEO) payload; payload to the Moon 50 tons and payload to Mars 44 tons - the main space contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said.

The main designer of Tianwen 1 said that China was a latecomer in the Mars exploration, but now has a big role on the international stage thanks to a technology foundation built over decades of exploration. the moon of this country.

In July 2020, China launched its first Mars mission, Tianwen 1, which includes an orbiter, a lander and a probe carrying a total of 13 scientific instruments. The landing took place safely on the Martian plain of Utopia Planitia in May 2021.

A historic moment in China's Tianwen 1 mission to Mars. The lander is a few meters off the Martian ground before successfully touching the ground in 2021.

At the end of 2021, the Chinese government declared the Tianwen 1 mission a success. The orbiter has so far completed a global remote sensing survey of Mars, while the Zhu Rong rover has traveled 1,921 kilometers south of its landing point, Sun Zezhou said.

In a related context, the US (specifically NASA) and Europe (specifically the European Space Agency - ESA) have joined hands on an even more complex mission to bring back samples from Mars to Earth, some samples are currently being collected by NASA's Perseverance rover.

In March 2022, NASA announced plans to delay the next phase of its Mars sample return campaign and split a lander mission into two separate spacecraft to reduce the program's overall risk.

Under the revised plan, ESA's return orbiter will launch in 2027 and samples will return to Earth in 2033 - expected to be two years later than China.

[Before announcing the postponement of this plan, NASA and ESA had a clear roadmap: 

In 2026, a NASA-led sampling lander and an ESA-led return-to-Earth orbiter will be launched to Mars. According to the plan, the lander will collect samples of the Perseverance rover and put them on a rocket called MAV. Mars samples are planned to be collected by the orbiter, which will use a collection mechanism provided by NASA, and return to Earth in 2031].

With the US-Europe mission taking place later than originally planned and China's mission likely to run ahead, China could become the first country to bring back soil samples from Mars - an achievement that no other country has ever done in history!

So far, only a few countries in the world have successfully explored Mars. In addition to the US and China, the Soviet Union, ESA, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have launched orbiters to the Red Planet (with successful missions and failed missions).

Notes in the post:

(*) NASA said that the distance between Earth and Mars ranges from about 54.6 million km (the closest distance) to 400.7 million km (the furthest distance). 

The difference in distance between these two planets is due to the elliptical orbits between them. To save flight time and fuel, planetary scientists often calculate carefully to choose the most appropriate time to launch spacecraft to Mars.