Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
China is on track to launch its Tianwen-3 mission to Mars in 2028 after previously estimating it would launch in 2030.
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.
According to Namrata Goswami, a space policy researcher at Arizona State University in the US, the change suggests that China’s confidence in its ability to develop the right technology for the complex operation is rising.
A 2028 launch date should see Martian samples returned to Earth around July 2031, according to a 2022 speech by Tianwen-1 mission lead Sun Zezhou at Nanjing University.
If this bet pays off, China could take the lead in the race for Mars. Goswami said that the first country to complete a successful Mars mission would become the global leader in space exploration.
Answer: two years
