Tianwen 2 probe launched Thursday and will also get up close with a comet
China's National Space Agency today launched the nation's first asteroid sample mission.
The Tianwen 2 probe rode a Long March 3B rocket into orbit at 1:31 on Thursday morning. Its first destination is Asteroid 2016HO3, aka 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, which orbits the Sun but, when seen from Earth appears to orbit our home planet, earning it the title of a "quasi-moon" or "quasi-satellite". The NASA video below illustrates the situation.
Youtube Video
Scientists think 2016HO3 has a diameter of just 40 to 100 meters. After its discovery in 2016 NASA noted [PDF] that it's an attractive target for exploration because it's sometimes just 14 million kilometers away and can be reached by a spacecraft travelling at a modes 7km/second.
The Tianwen 2 mission plan calls for the probe to reach the asteroid in about a year and then orbit it for a while before landing and attempting to retrieve around 100 grams of material.
After obtaining a sample, China will send the spacecraft in the direction of Earth. On approach, Tianwen 2 will drop a sample capsule containing material from 2016HO3 and then use our planet's gravity to boost its speed so it can reach comet 311P.
The probe packs three cameras, two spectrometers, radar, a magnetometer, a charged particle and neutral particle analyzer, an ejecta analyzer, and a pair of navigational sensors. China's space agency thinks those payloads will mean Tianwen 2 can gather data that advances our understanding of small bodies in space, and therefore the development of the solar system.
The mission will also test China's ability to fly deep space missions involving complex orbits, low-gravity environments, and autonomous operations.
Another hoped-for outcome is proving technologies China hopes to use when 2028's Tianwen 3 heads for Mars on a sample retrieval mission.
If that venture succeeds, China will likely become the first nation to retrieve rocks from the Red Planet as the USA's proposed NASA budget scrapped funding for a planned sample return mission. ®