Asteroid sampling returns! Tianwen No.2 mission has been approved by the state to establish the project.

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizens grass Luo Yuzi and d for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com, March 2, CTOnews.com learned from the official Wechat account of the "China Lunar Exploration Project" that the Tianwen-2 mission has been officially approved by the state, with a plan to return samples from near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 through a launch, and then go to the main belt comet 311p to carry out companion exploration.

In order to strengthen the communication between the scientific payload development team and scientists, promote scientists to have a better understanding of tasks and scientific payloads, and promote scientists to actively carry out advance research work, a special academic seminar will be held from April 27 to 28, 2023 in Hefei City, Anhui Province (meeting venue will be announced separately).

The Chang'e series detectors of China's lunar exploration project and the celestial exploration series detectors of the planetary exploration project, as well as the long March series of carrier rockets used to launch these spacecraft, were developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd. other subsystems of the project are also attended by relevant units belonging to the Aerospace Science and Technology Group. Among them, the Chang'e-2 mission realized the first short-range leap of a human spacecraft to detect the asteroid Tuttatis ("God of War"), and the Tianmen-1 mission achieved China's first Mars orbit, landing, and patrol exploration.

CTOnews.com reported in May last year that Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of China's first Mars exploration mission, said: after more than two years of development, Tianwen-2 has entered the initial development, electrical products are already under comprehensive testing, and the follow-up will be pushed forward at an established pace, and the launch is expected to be carried out in 2025.