China is setting sights on a celestial rock. The Tianwen-2 mission hopes to reach asteroid Kamo'oalewa, collect samples, and return home. Scientists say it could take a decade.
This mission would place China among the few nations—America, Russia, and Japan—that have studied asteroids up close and brought parts of them back. The spacecraft is expected to launch by May 2025 aboard a Long March 3B rocket from Sichuan’s Xichang Satellite Launch Centre.
Journey to Kamo'oalewa
Tianwen-2’s first target is Kamo'oalewa, a near-Earth asteroid. This tiny object orbits the sun, but it also loops Earth. It is called a quasi-satellite for this reason. Astronomers think it might be moon debris, thrown off by a cosmic collision.
Kamo'oalewa’s size ranges between 40 and 100 metres. Tianwen-2 will try to land and sample it using two different techniques. First, a "touch-and-go" method, where the probe uses a robotic arm to scrape its surface. This method worked well for NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex and Japan’s Hayabusa2 missions.
The second attempt is called "anchor and attach." Here, the spacecraft will use four robotic arms to grip and drill into the asteroid’s surface. Both sampling efforts aim to collect space material, which will then be returned to Earth.
Looking Beyond the Asteroid
Once that job is done, the probe won’t retire. Tianwen-2 will then head deeper into the asteroid belt. Its next target is comet 311P/PANSTARRS, located between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft will not collect material there. Instead, it will observe and study the comet’s features while orbiting it.
This mission continues China’s Tianwen series, named after a classical poem. The first, Tianwen-1, sent a rover to Mars in 2020. Though it landed safely, the rover failed to restart after hibernation in 2022. Tianwen-3 is already planned for 2028 and will attempt to collect Mars soil.
If Tianwen-2 succeeds, China will retrieve asteroid samples for the first time. It will also mark the country’s first successful contact with an interplanetary object beyond the moon. While China has brought back lunar samples before, this mission pushes farther into the solar system.
From collecting space rocks to observing ancient comets, Tianwen-2 will test China’s skills in space. More than just a technical challenge, it’s a step in answering centuries-old questions—just as its name, “Heavenly Questions,” suggests.
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