🇨🇳 China
Wetenschap
No sample deliberately collected on Mars has ever been examined in a laboratory on Earth, because bringing one home requires launching a sealed container from the Martian surface, autonomously rendezvousing with another spacecraft in orbit, and carrying it across interplanetary space; China plans to accomplish all three with Tianwen-3 and return at least 500 grams of Martian material around 2031.
Tianwen-3’s two-launch plan must link a Mars ascent, autonomous orbital capture and sealed interplanetary return before any sample can reach an…
