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Tianwen-2
''Tianwen-2'' () is a Chinese asteroid sample return and comet exploration mission that launched on 28 May 2025. China National Space Agency (CNSA) plans for the probe to return samples from asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa in 2027. After the mothership drops off the sample return vessel to Earth, it is planned that it will then rendezvous with main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS and explore it with its 11 onboard instruments. Overview CNSA launched the ''Tianwen-2'' probe using a Long March 3B carrier rocket on 28 May 2025 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China. The probe uses solar electric propulsion for maneuvering between its many objectives. It is planned to explore the co-orbital near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and the main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS. The spacecraft will rendezvous with Kamoʻoalewa and conduct remote sensing observations in orbit, before landing on the asteroid to collect a sample of of regolith. A nano-orbiter and nano- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planetary Exploration Of China
The Planetary Exploration of China (PEC; ), also known as Tianwen (), is the Robotic spacecraft, robotic interplanetary spaceflight program conducted by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The program aims to explore planets of the Solar System, starting from Mars, and will be expanded to Jupiter and more in the future. The program was initially known as the Mars mission of China at the early stage. It was later announced as Planetary Exploration of China in April 2020. The series of missions was named ''Tianwen''. The first mission of the program, Tianwen-1 Mars exploration mission, began on July 23, 2020. A spacecraft, which consisted of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover, was launched by a Long March 5 rocket from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, Wenchang. The Tianwen-1 was inserted into orbit of Mars, Mars orbit in February 2021 after a seven-month journey, followed by a successful soft landing (aeronautics), soft landing of the lander and Zhurong (rover), ''Zhuron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
469219 Kamoʻoalewa
469219 Kamooalewa (), provisionally designated , is a very small elongated asteroid, fast rotator and near-Earth object of the Apollo group, approximately in diameter. At present it is a quasi-satellite of Earth, and currently the second-smallest, closest, and most stable known such quasi-satellite (after ). The asteroid was discovered by Pan-STARRS at Haleakala Observatory on 27 April 2016. Numerous proposed missions have since targeted the object, including a NASA solar-sail mission,Heiligers, J., Fernandez, J. M., Stohlman, O. R., & Wilkie, W. K. (2019). Trajectory design for a solar-sail mission to asteroid 2016 HO3. Astrodynamics, 3(3), 231-246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42064-019-0061-1 a University of Colorado flyby and impact experiment, and was selected as a target for the Chinese ZhengHe project, which has developed into the Tianwen-2 mission. The chondritic simulants QLS-1, 2, and 3 have been developed by the Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology to bett ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long March 3B
The Long March 3B (), also known as the CZ-3B and LM-3B, is a Chinese orbital launch vehicle. Introduced in 1996, it is launched from Launch Area 2 and 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. A three-stage rocket with four strap-on liquid rocket boosters, it is the heaviest variant of the Long March 3 rocket family, and is mainly used to place communications satellites and navigation satellites into geosynchronous orbits. An enhanced version, the Long March 3B/E or G2, was introduced in 2007 to increase the rocket's geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) cargo capacity and lift heavier geosynchronous orbit (GEO) communications satellites. The Long March 3B also served as the basis for the medium-capacity Long March 3C, which was first launched in 2008. , the Long March 3B, 3B/E and 3B/G5 have conducted 105 successful launches, plus 2 failures and 2 partial failures, accumulating a success rate of . It is the first Long March (rocket family), Long March series rocket t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sample Return
A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission to collect and return samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as loose material and rocks. These samples may be obtained in a number of ways, such as soil and rock excavation or a collector array used for capturing particles of solar wind or cometary debris. Nonetheless, concerns have been raised that the return of such samples to planet Earth may endanger Earth itself. To date, samples of Moon rock from Earth's Moon have been collected by robotic and crewed missions; the comet Wild 2 and the asteroids 25143 Itokawa, 162173 Ryugu, and 101955 Bennu have been visited by robotic spacecraft which returned samples to Earth; and samples of the solar wind have been returned by the robotic ''Genesis'' mission. In addition to sample-return missions, samples from three identified non-terrestrial bodies have been c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tianwen-1
-1 ( zh , s = 天问一号) (also referred to as TW-1) is an interplanetary mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) which sent a robotic spacecraft to Mars, consisting of 6 spacecraft: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, lander, remote camera, and the ' rover. The spacecraft, with a total mass of nearly five tons, is one of the heaviest probes launched to Mars and carries 14 scientific instruments. It is the first in a series of planned missions undertaken by CNSA as part of its Planetary Exploration of China program. The mission's scientific objectives include: investigation of Martian surface geology and internal structure, search for indications of current and past presence of water, and characterization of the space environment and the atmosphere of Mars. The mission was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on 23 July 2020 on a Long March 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle. After seven months of transit through the inner Solar System, the spac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
China National Space Administration
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is a government agency of the People's Republic of China headquartered in Haidian District, Haidian, Beijing, responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation. These responsibilities include organizing or leading foreign exchanges and cooperation in the aerospace field. The CNSA is an administrative agency under the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Founded in 1993, CNSA has pioneered a number of achievements in space for China despite its relatively short history, including becoming the first space agency to land on the far side of the Moon with Chang'e 4, bringing material back from the Moon with Chang'e 5 and Chang'e 6, 6, and being the second agency who successfully landed a rover on Mars with Tianwen-1. Tianwen-2 is enroute to explore the co-orbital near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and the active asteroid 311P/PanSTARRS and collecting samples of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xichang Satellite Launch Center
The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC), also known as the Xichang Space Center, is a spaceport in China. It is located in (), Mianning county, approximately northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. It is operated by the People's Liberation Army Aerospace Force (formerly the People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force) and is known as the 27th Experimental Training base( MUCD: Unit 63790). The facility became operational in 1984 and is used to launch numerous civil, scientific, and military payloads annually. It is notable as the site of Sino-European space cooperation, with the launch of the first of two Double Star scientific satellites in December 2003. Chinese officials have indicated interest in conducting additional international satellite launches from XSLC. In 1996, a fatal accident occurred when the Long March 3B rocket carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite failed on its maiden launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
China National Space Agency
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is a government agency of the People's Republic of China headquartered in Haidian, Beijing, responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation. These responsibilities include organizing or leading foreign exchanges and cooperation in the aerospace field. The CNSA is an administrative agency under the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Founded in 1993, CNSA has pioneered a number of achievements in space for China despite its relatively short history, including becoming the first space agency to land on the far side of the Moon with Chang'e 4, bringing material back from the Moon with Chang'e 5 and 6, and being the second agency who successfully landed a rover on Mars with Tianwen-1. Tianwen-2 is enroute to explore the co-orbital near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and the active asteroid 311P/PanSTARRS and collecting samples of the regolith of Kamo'oale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Near-Earth Asteroid
A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit around the Sun, rather than its current position, thus an object with such an orbit is considered an NEO even at times when it is far from making a close approach of Earth. If an NEO's orbit crosses the Earth's orbit, and the object is larger than across, it is considered a potentially hazardous object (PHO). Most known PHOs and NEOs are asteroids, but about a third of a percent are comets. There are over 37,000 known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and over 120 known short-period near-Earth comets (NECs). A number of solar-orbiting meteoroids were large enough to be tracked in space before striking Earth. It is now widely accepted that collisions in the past have had a significant role in shaping the geological and biological history of Earth. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tianwen-3
''Tianwen-3'' () is a planned Mars sample-return mission by China which would send two spacecraft (an orbiter/Earth-returner and a lander/ascent-vehicle) via two separate launches to Mars. Together, the two spacecraft will seek to obtain samples of Martian rocks and soil and then return the cached samples to Earth. The mission is scheduled to launch in 2028. The primary goal of the mission is to search for signatures of life on Mars. Overview In summer 2022 during a deep space exploration technology forum held at Nanjing University, Sun Zezhou, chief designer of the Tianwen-1 mission, detailed plans for the mission based on a two-launch architecture. The mission constitutes part of the Tianwen series of space missions. The current mission architecture envisions two launches around 2028 by the Long March 5 carrier rocket. One launch will send an orbiter/return-vehicle. A second launch will send a lander/ascent-vehicle. Once the lander arrives on the Martian surface it will c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Remote Sensing
Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth and other planets. Remote sensing is used in numerous fields, including geophysics, geography, land surveying and most Earth science disciplines (e.g. exploration geophysics, hydrology, ecology, meteorology, oceanography, glaciology, geology). It also has military, intelligence, commercial, economic, planning, and humanitarian applications, among others. In current usage, the term ''remote sensing'' generally refers to the use of satellite- or airborne-based sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth. It includes the surface and the atmosphere and oceans, based on wave propagation, propagated signals (e.g. electromagnetic radiation). It may be split into "active" remote sensing (when a signal is emitted b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regolith
Regolith () is a blanket of unconsolidated, loose, heterogeneous superficial deposits covering solid rock. It includes dust, broken rocks, and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, Mars, some asteroids, and other terrestrial planets and moons. Etymology The term '' regolith'' combines two Greek words: (), 'blanket', and (), 'rock'. The American geologist George P. Merrill first defined the term in 1897, writing: Earth Earth's regolith includes the following subdivisions and components: * soil or pedolith * alluvium and other transported cover, including that transported by aeolian, glacial, marine, and gravity flow processes. * "saprolith'", generally divided into the ** ''upper saprolite'': completely oxidised bedrock ** ''lower saprolite'': chemically reduced partially weathered rocks ** ''saprock'': fractured bedrock with weathering restricted to fracture margins * volcanic ash and lava flows that are interbedded with unconsolidated materia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
