China launches Tianwen-2 asteroid and comet study mission
China on Wednesday launched its Tianwen-2 space mission to collect asteroid samples and conduct a main-belt comet study. A LongMarch 3B rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Photo courtesy Chinese National Space Administration
May 28 (UPI) -- China Wednesday launched its Tianwen-2 space mission to collect asteroid samples and conduct a main-belt comet study. A LongMarch 3B rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
The Long March 3B Y110 rocket lifted off toward the near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamo'oalewa and is expected to take a year to reach the asteroid.
Asteroid samples are scheduled to return to Earth by 2027 as the mission heads for a rendezvous with the 311P/Pantstarrs comet around 2035.
"All Chinese planetary scientists are now finger-crossed for this historic mission," said University of Hong Kong lunar geologist Yuqi Qian in a statement.
The Chinese spacecraft will try to collect rocky matter from the asteroid, sending a capsule full of the space rocks back to Earth.
China would be the third nation after the United States and Japan to bring back asteroid samples if this mission succeeds.
Scientists will be able to carefully analyze the asteroid samples, identifying chemical and physical properties at detail not possible from remote observations alone.
The Kamo'oalewa asteroid is a quasi-satellite of Earth a few dozen meters across with very atypical orbital characteristics.
It may be piece of the moon put into orbit by some sort of large impact like a meteor.
Studying samples from Kamo'oalewa could yield critical information about the formation and evolution of the Earth-moon system.
The deep-space mission's onboard gear includes an ejecta analyzer, a radar instrument, and a magnetometer, which will be used to map the asteroid's and comet's microenvironment.
Those instruments can map magnetic fields, detect very small dust particles and also analyze subsurface compositions.
Tianwen-2 will orbit the 311P/Panstarrs comet in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in order to collect data that could help learn where Earth's water came from.
This is China's second planetary exploration mission. Tianwen-1 launched a Mars orbiter and rover in 2020.
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