According to media sources, China intends to transport Mars samples to Earth in 2031, two years before NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
According to SpaceNews, the goal date was stated in a Monday (June 20) presentation by Sun Zezhou, principal designer of the Tianwen 1 Mars orbiter and rover mission, which arrived at the Red Planet in February 2021.
As per Zezhou’s presentation, which was purportedly presented at a Nanjing University lecture, China is planning a two-launch mission with liftoff in late 2028 and a sample return to Earth in July 2031.
“In compared to the collaborative NASA-ESA effort, the sophisticated, multi-launch mission will have a simpler design, with a single Mars landing and no rovers sampling multiple locations,” SpaceNews stated.
NASA recently solicited public feedback on its joint sample return plans, after the agency’s decision to create a second Mars lander due to the mission’s bulk needs. The addition of a second lander pushes the arrival of Mars samples on Earth from 2031 to 2033.
The NASA-ESA effort will transport samples gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been investigating the 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer) Jezero Crater since February 2021. The samples will be collected by a European-built “fetch” rover and placed onto an American-built Mars ascent vehicle (MAV). The sample container will be sent into Mars orbit by the MAV and captured by a European Earth return orbiter.
According to SpaceNews, China’s attempt will be more focused, with soil and rock gathered from a limited area using “surface sample, drilling, and mobile intelligent sampling, maybe employing a four-legged robot.”
China has prior experience sending samples from the moon. In December 2020, China’s Chang’e 5 mission landed on the moon and returned to Earth the first lunar samples since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976.
And as a result of China’s Tianwen 1 mission, which was launched in July 2020 and landed on Mars in February 2021, China already has a significant amount of expertise operating on Mars. Tianwen 1 is made up of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover dubbed Zhurong, which will settle in May 2021.
Both the Tianwen 1 orbiter and the Zhurong are still operational. In May of this year, the rover went into slumber to try to survive the harsh Red Planet winter.
In 2021, NASA officials and members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet worried that Chinese exploration may endanger American interests.
During a fictional Senate hearing in May 2021, for example, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson displayed a printed-out image of Zhurong on Mars twice, saying the Chinese mission is “adding a new factor regarding whether we want to be serious” about NASA returning people to the moon. NASA’s Artemis program seeks to land astronauts on the moon’s surface by 2025.
However, China has been attempting to raise its scientific profile in the space world. Earlier in June, it produced a high-resolution global picture of the moon, and in May, it revealed plans for its Tianwen 2 asteroid sample return mission, which is set to launch in 2025.
Read More – https://tdznkwjt9mxt6p1p8657.cleaver.live/nasa-dog-door-on-mars-is-a-rocky-doorway-into-ancient-past/
