While NASA applies the cuts of the efficiency department directed by Elon Musk, China has presented the most ambitious space exploration program in its history. A series of scientific missions led by the newly created Laboratory for Exploration of the Deep Space that would not only advance to the US in several milestones: no one would arrive in the solar system.
Kamo’oalewa (2025). With the launch of the Tianwen-2 probe, scheduled for May of this year, China aspires to become the third country to collect samples of an asteroid near the Earth. Japan had only done (twice) and the United States (after the recent Osiris-Rex mission).
469219 KAMO’OALEWA is a “miniluna”, a terrestrial quasissis of between 40 and 90 meters in diameter that China aspires to “play” with Tianwen-2, a mission that will also study the Elst-Pizarro comet-stalloid and that will serve as a learning for the future mission of recovery of Mars samples.
Marte (2028). Tianwen-3 is the mission to bring Mars soil that could mark the overtaking Symbolic of the Chinese Space Agency to NASA, since the American Mission of Return of Martian samples (in which the European Space Agency also participates) is now in pause.
Tianwen-3 is simpler than Mars Sample Return. If what NASA wants is to look for the rocks that the Rover Perseverance has carefully selected, China is made up of reaching the red planet, drilling the ground, collecting at least 500 grams of samples and taking off with a small rocket so that a return probe brings them to the earth.
2015 XF261 (2028). The same year that China plans to launch Tianwen-3, it would also launch its first great planetary defense mission. Two Chinese probes will follow the steps of the NASA and Hera Missions of ESA. One will impact the near Asteroid 2015 XF261 and the other will observe the impact to confirm that humanity has diverted a second asteroid.
Callisto and Uranus (2029). The Tianwen-4 mission, whose launch is scheduled for 2029, has a double objective. It would arrive in Jupiter in 2035. A first orbitutical probe Callisto, one of the moons of the gaseous giant, at the same time as I played from that orbitase Ganímedes, another of its moons.
A second probe, equipped with thermoelectric radioisotope generators, would take advantage of Jupiter’s gravitational assistance to get to Uranus in 2045. It would be one of the first scientific missions to Uranus, which received the visit of the Voyager 2 probe in 1986.
Venus (2033). Another sampling recovery mission, but this time atmospheric. A Chinese probe would travel to neighbor Venus and take its “air” to analyze whether it has microorganisms or possible biological traces, as some recent studies suggest.
Neptune (2033). China has also proposed a mission to the last planet of the Solar System. With a launch around 2033, the mission would orbit the ice cream giant, would perform nearby surveys on its triton moon and display an atmospheric probe equipped with a balloon.
With a useful life of up to 20 years thanks to radioisotope thermoelectric generators, it would be the first probe sent exclusively to Neptune. For its launch, the future CZ-9 rocket, the “Chinese starship” would be used.
Marte (2038). In addition to a manned station on the moon, China plans to display an autonomous robotic station on Mars to investigate techniques for the use of Martian resources that could serve for future manned missions. China plans to step on Mars in the 2040s.
Triton (2039). The second Chinese mission to Neptune and his Triton moon is the most ambitious of the program because he would use a nuclear fission reactor to feed the ship’s electrical thrusters. All that energy would not only allow you to orbit Neptune, but also penetrate the ice from the triton surface to explore the hypothetical subsurface ocean in search of life.
Imagen | Xinhua
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