The Earth & Moon | China Tianwen-2 Asteroid Sample/Return & Comet Mission
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) just released images of the Earth and the Moon taken by its Tianwen-2 spacecraft on its way to sample asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016HO3), a near-Earth object of the Apollo group. Tianwen-2 was launched on May 28, 2025.
Tianwen-2 will collect pristine samples from the near-Earth asteroid, 2016HO3 and return them to Earth. Next, it will go explore the main-belt comet 311P—more distant than Mars.
The probe is expected to return asteroid samples to Earth in 2027 with the entire mission to last a decade.
If successful, China will become only the third country in the world to carry out such a feat after Japan and the United States.
The Tianwen-2 mission is the latest example of China's space achievements in recent years. These include returning samples from the near and far sides of the Moon, launching a successful mission to probe Mars, operating its own national space station in orbit, and moving ahead in its plan to send humans to the lunar surface by 2030.
Liu Jianjun, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) National Astronomical Observatories and deputy chief engineer of the Tianwen-2 mission, said at the press briefing that studying asteroids, known as "cosmic fossils," can provide important clues about the solar system's infancy and the Earth's evolution.
"Asteroids are a very special celestial body in our solar system. They maintain a relatively primitive state seen in the early stage of our solar system's formation, so studying them can greatly help us understand the infancy of the solar system. More importantly, studying asteroids provides very important clues for us to understand the Earth and its evolution," said Liu.
Significantly, depending on the 2016HO3's surface conditions, Tianwen-2 will employ three approaches for sample collection—hover sampling, touch-and-go, and attachment sampling. This makes China the first country in the world to design multiple asteroid sampling techniques.
Su Yan, another researcher of the CAS's National Astronomical Observatories and chief engineer of the Tianwen-2 mission's ground application system, added that China's foray into asteroid sample return demonstrates the significant advancement in its deep space exploration technologies.
"Based on the unknown features of asteroids, the probe has been specially designed with three sampling methods. It is also the first time in the world that so many sampling techniques have been designed by a country. Since we have, until now, just started to conduct exploration on this type of targets, it marks a significant improvement in our country's deep space exploration technologies," Su said.
Release Date: June 30, 2025
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