China's Plans to Detect Lunar Water, Return Mars Samples | Solar System Exploration
China is advancing a series of ambitious plans to explore deep space, ranging from hunting for water on the Moon to bringing back samples from Mars with an ultimate goal to probe outer reaches of the solar system, said Chinese experts.
In the field of lunar exploration, China's Chang'e-7 lunar probe, scheduled for launch later this year, will target the Moon's south pole to search for water ice. The mission could make China the first country to detect water ice on the Moon.
"Scientists around the world believe there's water on the Moon, but no one has found any yet. Now China is going to look for it. And we're using many methods, from searching the surface to exploring inside craters," said Ye Peijian, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The Chang'e-7 probe is composed of an orbiter, a lander, a rover, a hopper and a relay satellite.
At the Moon's south pole, there are craters that never see sunlight. Scientists think they hold huge reserves of water ice. However, no spacecraft has ever entered to investigate until the Chang'e-7. With its specially designed hopper, it will be the first to approach and explore a lunar shadow crater.
Researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology's space laboratory in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province are conducting experiments to support the Chang'e-7 mission of locating water ice.
"We've just created a lunar soil simulant for the Moon's polar region. Next, we will use this set of equipment to convert that soil into water ice. The equipment can create a vacuum environment on the Moon. Secondly, it can cool the lunar mineral material down to minus 240 degrees Celsius. Then, this water molecule excitation device will produce a steady stream of water molecules. When the water molecules come into contact with the cold lunar soil, they will adsorb and deposit to form ice. By using special tools and molds, we can create samples of lunar water ice," said Zhang Weiwei, associate professor at the School of Mechatronics Engineering at the Harbin Institute of Technology.
Apart from lunar missions, China's Tianwen series, the country's planetary exploration program, is also advancing rapidly.
"The Tianwen-2 mission is embarking on a 'star-chasing' journey to collect samples from a near-Earth small body and return them to the Earth. The Tianwen-3 aims to bring back Mars samples to the ground. The Tianwen-4 is our mission to explore Jupiter. I believe this demonstrates our capability and means to expand our horizons from the Earth and cislunar space to interplanetary space and even to the entire solar system and beyond in the future," said Sun Zezhou, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and a researcher at the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
China's deep-space ambitions extend beyond the Chang'e and Tianwen missions. With plans to explore the Sun, the solar system's frontiers, and Venus, the country is building a deep-space exploration system that covers everything from cislunar space and the moon to Mars, small bodies, and other planets.
Duration: 1 minute, 53 seconds
Release Date: March 10, 2026
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