China's successful launch of its first-ever asteroid probe and sample-return mission, Tianwen-2, is a new landmark endeavor to further humanity's understanding of the cosmos, including how asteroids and the Earth formed and evolved, according to two Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) engineers at a press briefing on Thursday.
A Long March-3B rocket, carrying spacecraft Tianwen-2 ("Questions to Heaven" in Chinese), lifted off at 01:31 Beijing Time Thursday from southwest China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Tianwen-2 will collect pristine samples from a near-Earth asteroid, 2016HO3, return them to Earth, and explore the main-belt comet 311P, which is more distant than Mars.
The probe is expected to return asteroid samples to Earth in 2027,with the whole mission to last a decade long.
If successful, China will become only the third country in the world to carry out such a mission after Japan and the United States.
The Tianwen-2 mission is the latest example of China's cosmic achievements in recent years, which include returning samples from both the near and far sides of the Moon, launching a successful mission to probe Mars, running its own national space station in orbit, and moving ahead in its plan to send humans to the lunar surface by 2030.
Liu Jianjun, a researcher at the CAS's National Astronomical Observatories and deputy chief engineer of the Tianwen-2 mission, said at the press briefing that studying asteroids, known as "cosmic fossils," can provide important clues about the solar system's infancy and the Earth's evolution.
"Asteroids are a very special celestial body in our solar system. They maintain a relatively primitive state seen in the early stage of our solar system's formation, so studying them can greatly help us understand the infancy of the solar system. More importantly, studying asteroids provides very important clues for us to understand the Earth and its evolution," said Liu.
Significantly, depending on the 2016HO3's surface conditions, Tianwen-2 will employ three approaches for sample collection -- hover sampling, touch-and-go, and attachment sampling, which makes China the first country in the world to design multiple asteroid sampling techniques.
Su Yan, another researcher of the CAS's National Astronomical Observatories and chief engineer of the Tianwen-2 mission's ground application system, added that China's foray into asteroid sample return demonstrates the significant advancement in its deep space exploration technologies.
"Based on the unknown features of asteroids, the probe has been specially designed with three sampling methods. It is also the first time in the world that so many sampling techniques have been designed by a country. Since we have, until now, just started to conduct exploration on this type of targets, it marks a significant improvement in our country's deep space exploration technologies," Su said.
China's asteroid sample-return mission to advance humanity’s understanding of cosmos: experts
