China plans to launch a space mission in about four years to bring samples from Mars to Earth, which will be the first such attempt in the world, DPA reported.
So far, no country or company has been able to achieve this. Samples from the Red Planet have been taken and data sent back to Earth, but so far no material has been returned.
For the Tianwen-3 mission, two Long March 5 launch vehicles will be launched separately, DPA notes.
“Since Mars is much further away from the Moon, the limited transportation capabilities of our current rockets means that two launches are needed to complete the mission to return the samples,” Liu Jizhong, who worked on the project, told Xinhua at a conference in Hefei, East China.
In 2020, China sent a rover to the Red Planet as part of the Tianwen-1 mission, DPA recalls.
This time, scientists want to look for life there and take samples from the surface and air, as well as do deep drilling, DPA notes.
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