China aims for historic Mars mission ‘around 2028’ as it vies for space power

Hong Kong CNN —

China’s historic attempt to bring samples from Mars to Earth could launch as soon as 2028, two years earlier than previously stated, according to a senior mission official.

The country’s Tianwen-3 mission would carry out two launches “around 2028” to retrieve the Martian samples, chief mission designer Liu Jizhong said at a deep-space exploration event in eastern China’s Anhui province last week.

The projected mission launch is more ambitious than a 2030 target announced by space officials earlier this year, though the timeline has fluctuated in recent years. A 2028 target appears to return to a launch plan described in 2022 by a senior scientist involved with the Tianwen program – a mission profile that would see samples returned to Earth by 2031.

The latest remarks follow China’s landmark success retrieving the first samples from the far side of the moon in June.

It also comes as an effort by NASA and the European Space Agency to retrieve Mars samples remains under assessment amid concerns over budget, complexity and risk. The US space agency, which first landed on Mars decades ago, said it is evaluating faster and more affordable plans to allow for a speedier result than one that would have returned samples in 2040.

Becoming the first country to return samples from Mars would be a significant accomplishment for China’s ambitious space program and leader Xi Jinping’s stated “eternal dream” to make the country a space power.

China’s advances – including uncrewed lunar missions and the establishment of its own orbital space station – come as the US and other countries have ramped up their own space programs amid a growing focus on the potential access to resources and scientific benefits of lunar