By the end of May 2025 he will take off the Chinese mission Tianwen-2: the goal of the launch is to collect champions of 2016 HO3, an asteroid quasi-Satellite of the Earth.
The next Chinese interplanetary mission, called Tianwen-2is imminent. The spatial vehicle was transferred to the launch center located in the southwestern region of China and was integrated with the 3B long vector. Take -off is expected by the end of May 2025.
New objectives. Tianwen-2 will be the first mission of the country dedicated to the recovery of material by a small celestial body. China has already repeatedly reported on earth lunar championsbut it is the first time that it is committed to the difficult mission of bringing the material of such a distant object to the ground, as is a asteroid.
A “lunar” asteroid? The initial target of the mission is the 2016 HO3 object, also known by the name Hawaiian Kamoʻoalewaa Quasi-Satellite Asteroid of the Earth which stands out for its stable orbital trajectory and for the composition similar to the lunar one. In fact, it is assumed that it may be a fragment detached from the moon following an ancient impact.
Once the asteroid has been reached, the probe will carry out ansamples collection operation using mixed technology: a robotic arm and adhesive surfaces designed to retain surface material. The return to the land of the collected load is expected around 2030, through a capsule that will be released during a close passage to our planet.
Double task. The mission will not end with the delivery of the samples: the main body of the probe will continue its journey to a new goal, The comet 311/p Panstarrs located in the main band of asteroids. It was discovered on August 15, 2013 by the Pan-Starrs telescope and has a diameter of about 480 meters. What makes it particularly interesting is the fact that he showed Six powder queues. After a gravitational assistance maneuver, Tianwen-2 will try a “close encounter” with the comet, exploring the nucleus and analyzing the gases and dust emitted in his environment. This approach, reminiscent of the European Rosetta mission, provides for the use of scientific tools for the detailed study of composition and commercial activity.
Record mission. The entire mission will have an estimated duration in about ten years And he will make use of an engineering platform derived from that used for the Martian mission Tianwen-1 which, which started in 2020, made a Lander and the Zhurong Rover down in Mars in 2021, but modified to face a much longer and complex journey.
Among the innovations they appear Long -lasting electrical propulsion systems, autonomous navigation capacity and modules for high precision atmospheric return.
With this project, the Chinese spatial program aims to consolidate its role among the robotic interplanetary explorations, opening the way to new missions with multiple goals.
Waiting for the outcome. If the mission is successful, China will become the third country in the world to bring champions of an asteroid back to Earth, after the companies already made by United States (with Osiris-Rex) e Japan (with Hayabusa and Hayabusa2). It will also be the first time ever that a single probe will carry out Both the recovery of samples from an asteroid and a subsequent close exploration of a comet.
