China eyes outrunning NASA, ESA in Mars sample return mission with aggressive timeline

China is aiming to outrun NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) by retrieving samples from Mars two years earlier. According to a report by Space News, Sun Zezhou, chief designer of the Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and rover mission, outlined plans for the multi-launch mission which is scheduled for launch in 2028 and return with Martian samples in 2031, two years before the Western nations.

China's ambitious timeline clashes with NASA and ESA which have a joint plan of launching their own mission and delivering the rock and dust samples to Earth in the early next decade. According to ESA's schedule, it would launch the Earth Return Orbiter in 2027 to retrieve the samples collected by the Perseverance Rover in 2033. 

China's Mars mission profile

According to the mission profile presented by Zezhou at an event on Monday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) will launch the mission named Tianwen-3 in two combinations. The presentation was made during a seminar to celebrate the 120th anniversary of Nanjing University, Space News reported. As for the Tianwen-3 combinations, the first one includes a lander and ascent vehicle planned for launch using the Long March 5 rocket, and the second combination consists of an orbiter and a return module that would be launched on a Long March 3B rocket.

Zezhou revealed that the Chinese spacecraft's entry, descent and landing on Mars will deploy techniques used during the Tianwen-1 mission in 2021 whereas the sampling of Martian soil and rocks will use technologies demonstrated during China's lunar sampling mission Chang’e-5 in 2020. Once the spacecraft lands on Mars in September 2029, a four-legged robot will collect the samples and transfer them to a two-staged ascent vehicle. This ascent vehicle will then liftoff and dock with the Chinese orbiter waiting in the Martian orbit which is scheduled to depart for Earth in October 2030 and arrive in July 2031.

Notably, CNSA's plan is similar to that of NASA's; however, the latter's mission is being considered less complex since the US space agency is also developing a rover and a rocket for their Mars Sample Return Campaign. The Chinese expert even said that the team of Tianwen-1, China's first interplanetary mission, will perform an 'aerobraking test' in Mars orbit to practice for Tianwen-3.