Tianwen

CASC included construction of the Tianwen-2 spacecraft as a key goal in its 2023 plans alongside building the Chang’e-7 lunar south pole landing mission spacecraft.

Tianwen-2 will use a touch-and-go sampling technique similar to NASA’s OSIRIS-REx and JAXA’s Hayabusa2.

CASC has developed parachutes for its human spaceflight program, the Tianwen-1 Mars rover landing, and for the 2020 Chang’e-5 and upcoming Chang’e-6 lunar sample return missions.

Tianwen-2 is scheduled to launch on a Long March 3B rocket in May 2025.

Tianwen-2 will also use an anchor-and-attach sampling system that features drills at the tips of landing legs.

After delivering samples to Earth, the Tianwen-2 spacecraft will use its approach to the planet for a gravitational slingshot maneuver to send it toward main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS.

Tianwen-4 is scheduled to launch around 2030.

Sampling for Tianwen-3 will use a lander-based robotic arm to collect surface samples and a drill to collect material from up to two meters below the surface, following the approach used on China's 2020 Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission.

Tianwen-3 will use a pair of Long March 5 rockets to send two separate spacecraft stacks toward Mars around 2030 with the goal of collecting and returning 0.5 kg of samples.

Prospective Tianwen-3 landing sites are required to have an elevation of at least 3,0 m below the Martian zero-elevation level.

Engineering constraints for Tianwen-3 require the landing to take place between 17 and 30 degrees north latitude due to energy and lighting requirements.

Entry, descent, and landing for Tianwen-3 will build on technology used for the Zhurong rover landing from China's Tianwen-1 Mars mission.

A late-2028 launch profile for Tianwen-3 would deliver samples to Earth before the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission.

An earlier mission profile presented in June 2022 targeted a Tianwen-3 launch in late 2028 with samples delivered to Earth in July 2031.

Previous CPPCC proposals by Ye Peijian and Wu Weiren for Mars missions and a national laboratory for deep space exploration were realized as the Tianwen-1 orbiter and rover mission launched in 2020 and the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory established in 2022.

The Wenchang Satellite Launch Center hosted launches of a lunar sample return mission and the Tianwen-1 interplanetary expedition.

The Tianwen-1 orbiter was operating well as of 2023-01-10 and had completed its primary science objectives.

Zhurong is part of the Tianwen-1 mission, which launched in July 2020 as China’s first independent interplanetary exploration expedition.