Latest news with #Tianwen
Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Science
- Boston Globe
China to launch mission to capture pieces of an unusual asteroid
If Tianwen-2 pulls this off, China will become the third nation — after Japan and the United States — to retrieve pristine material from an asteroid. 'All Chinese planetary scientists are now finger-crossed for this historic mission,' said Yuqi Qian, a lunar geologist at the University of Hong Kong. Advertisement The spacecraft also has a secondary target, an unusual comet that it could study as part of an extended mission. Visiting these objects will help reveal more about the building blocks of the worlds of the inner solar system. And as asteroids can pose an impact risk to Earth, missions to study the structures and mineral makeups of these objects can aid planning to deflect or vaporize them. 'A sample return mission is a gift that keeps on giving,' said Sara Russell, a planetary scientist at London's Natural History Museum. Advertisement While fragments of asteroids reach Earth's surface periodically, they are contaminated and altered when they plummet through the atmosphere. Scientists prefer untouched matter from the source, brought back to study in ultraclean laboratories. 'Sample return missions allow us to pick apart the physical and chemical properties of a body in a level of detail that's not possible with remote observations by telescopes and spacecraft,' said Ashley King, a meteoriticist also at the London museum. China's space agency has executed two successful sample return missions to the moon — in 2020 and 2024. But Tianwen-2 (Tianwen is often translated as 'Questions to Heaven') is China's first foray into asteroid sample return. Kamoʻoalewa, the asteroid it will visit, is somewhat peculiar. As a quasi-satellite earlier known as 2016 HO3, it loops around Earth, but it is not a true moon because it is gravitationally bound to the sun. Recent telescopic observations suggest it is made of the same volcanic matter found on the moon, implying that it is a piece of the lunar surface shorn off by a meteor impact. 'Kamoʻoalewa, therefore, potentially holds key information about the formation and evolution of the Earth-moon system,' King said. However 'its origins remain an open question,' said Benjamin Sharkey, a planetary astronomer at the University of Maryland who made those recent telescopic observations. He said he was excited that Tianwen-2 was going to bring some of the asteroid home for study, which should close the case of Kamoʻoalewa's origins. Kamoʻoalewa can get within 9 million miles of Earth, making it an easy target to reach. But diving down to sample it is risky. 'The sample collection and return are hardest,' Russell said, 'because humans have only a very limited amount of experience in doing both.' Advertisement The asteroid may be only 130 feet across — a small target. Its rapid rotation, about once every 28 minutes, poses additional challenges. 'You need to find ways to either grab the sample without landing or a way to hang on as it spins,' King said. China's spacecraft may try doing both. 'Tianwen-2 will use two methods to collect samples from Kamoʻoalewa,' Qian said. The first is 'Touch and Go,' a method employed by the US and Japanese asteroid missions: The spacecraft briefly makes contact with the object, kicks up the surface using compressed gas or a fired projectile, and captures jettisoned rocks before the spacecraft flees the scene. The second method, 'Anchor and Attach,' has never been tested. Using a series of drills, Tianwen-2 will try to adhere to the asteroid before retrieving both shallow and deeper samples. If Tianwen-2 navigates those dangers and eventually drops its bits of Kamoʻoalewa to Earth, it will then fly to the Comet 311P/PanSTARRS, arriving in the early 2030s to study it remotely. Tianwen-2 is more than just a scientific sleuth. It is also a technological steppingstone for China's ambitious Tianwen-3 mission. Due to launch in 2028, it aims to retrieve rock samples from Mars and return them to Earth. A comparable effort led by the United States to achieve the same goal is facing major hurdles. This article originally appeared in
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
What is China's space mission Tianwen-2?
Representative Image China's Tianwen-2 mission will mark the country's first attempt to survey and sample an asteroid and put it in league with the US, Russia and Japan. Tianwen-2 will investigate a nearby asteroid called Kamo'oalewa, which orbits the sun at a distance relatively close to Earth. The entire mission could last a decade. If it successfully retrieves and returns samples from the asteroid, it will continue to explore the solar system with a second trip to the main asteroid belt. When will Tianwen-2 launch? Tianwen-2 will launch at the end of May 2025 on a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province, according to a statement published by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). CNSA has yet to confirm an exact launch date. Where is Tianwen-2 going? The first target for Tianwen-2 will be the asteroid Kamo'oalewa. If successful, it will mark the first time China has collected samples from an "interplanetary" body in the solar system. China has, however, previously returned samples from the moon. How will it retrieve samples? Tianwen-2 will attempt to sample Kamooalewa with a "touch-and-go" technique that was successfully used by the OSIRIS-Rex and Hayabusa2 missions. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Добро пожаловать в Аравию SAUDI Забронировать Undo This method uses an extended robotic arm to scrape an asteroid's surface as the probe flies past. It will also attempt to land on the surface using a second "anchor and attach" technique. This would see four robotic arms extend and drill into the surface to retrieve material. As with other space sample missions, the samples would then be dropped back to Earth before the probe continues towards its secondary mission in the asteroid belt. Interplanetary bodies — literally natural space objects between planets, including asteroids, comets and meteors — are common near Earth and have been explored for years by other space agencies, such as NASA, Roscosmos and JAXA. After Kamo'oalewa, Tianwen-2's next destination is the comet 311P/PANSTARRS. Comet 311P/PANSTARRS in the solar system's main "asteroid belt" between Mars and Jupiter. The probe won't gather samples from the comet but will instead orbit and analyze its composition. What is Kamo'oalewa? Kamo'oalewa is an unusual asteroid, estimated to be between 40-100 meters (131–328 feet) in diameter. It's described as a "quasi-satellite" because, while it orbits the sun , its current location near Earth means it also loops around our planet in the process. Astronomers think Kamo'oalewa may be a boulder that was blasted off the surface of our moon following an impact with another space object. It will take about two-and-a-half years for Tianwen-2 to complete its initial mission to Kamo'oalewa. What does Tianwen mean? Tianwen is the name of a work by Chinese poet Qu Yuan, who died around 278 BCE. It translates as "Heavenly questions." This series of missions began with the launch of Tianwen-1 in July 2020, which sent an explorer to Mars. After landing on the surface in May 2021, the rover was put into hibernation mode but failed to restart as planned at the end of 2022. Tianwen-3 is the next scheduled mission, due to begin in 2028. That will be China's first attempt to return samples from the surface of Mars.
