China wants to shake NASA’s throne by launching a Mars mission that will bring Martian soil and rocks to our planet about two years before the US-based space agency NASA. Currently, NASA’s mission to return samples from Mars has encountered some setbacks and there are even reports that it has been stopped. Therefore, these disruptions may be enough to give China the chance it has been waiting for.
- And the expected happened, NASA’s Mars dream ended before it even started
According to new news from Science Alert, the Chinese space agency wants to conduct a crewed mission to Mars within the next decade. But China hopes to complete its own Mars sample mission two years before NASA’s current mission ends, as it prepares for the arrival of taikonauts on the surface of Mars.
This mission will be the third of the China National Space Administration’s Tianwen program and will therefore be known as Tianwen-3. Additionally, the mission will consist of a pair of launches that will collect samples on the surface of Mars in 2028 and return to the planet in July 2031.
It’s unclear whether China has big plans for a Mars sample return mission, but if it manages to get it done before NASA does, it could open up some interesting possibilities. It’s no secret that China has been working hard to gain more foothold in the field of space exploration, and the country has managed to achieve some exciting achievements over the past few years.
But not everything he did resulted in success; China’s Mars rover failed during a harsh Martian winter earlier this year, failing to wake up from its long slumber on the Martian surface. A new paper also says China is working on new ways to understand the Martian atmosphere.
With plans to launch its own Mars sample return mission as well as a new model of the Martian atmosphere, China is poised to become a big name in the exploration of the Red Planet. However, time will tell how successful these plans will be.
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