China’s space program and Mars

Chapter 1 · 2011 – 2012 A first try, aboard a Russian probe

China’s first spacecraft bound for Mars never left Earth orbit. It was traveling as a passenger on a Russian mission.

Yinghuo-1

On November 8, 2011, Russia launched Phobos-Grunt, a probe meant to bring back samples from Phobos, the larger moon of Mars. It carried a small Chinese orbiter, Yinghuo-1, which was to study Mars from orbit. Once in its parking orbit around Earth, Phobos-Grunt failed to fire its engine to leave for Mars. The whole stack made an uncontrolled reentry over the Pacific Ocean on January 15, 2012. Yinghuo-1 was lost with it.

Nine years later, China set out on its own.

Sources: NASA History, “25 Years of Continuous Robotic Mars Exploration – From Pathfinder to Perseverance” (Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1, joint Russian-Chinese effort, launch on November 8, 2011, engine failure, reentry over the Pacific on January 15, 2012). This source does not detail Yinghuo-1’s planned science; the book on Roscosmos tells the mission in more detail.

Chapter 2 · 2020 – 2023 Tianwen-1 and Zhurong

For its first independent interplanetary mission, China attempted in one go what no one had achieved at once: entering orbit around Mars, landing there and driving a rover.

Departure

On July 23, 2020, the Tianwen-1 probe lifted off from China. It traveled about 475 million kilometers and, on February 10, 2021, entered orbit around Mars. It then began photographing the surface to choose the landing site and study the atmosphere.

Nine minutes

On May 15, 2021, at 7:18 a.m. Beijing time, the landing module set down in southern Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in Mars’s northern hemisphere, inside the planet’s largest known impact basin. Scientists chose it for its suitable terrain and weather, and because it was probably once part of an ancient Martian ocean. Entry, descent and landing, the riskiest nine minutes of the mission, ran autonomously, because signals take too long to cross the roughly 320 million kilometers then separating Mars from Earth: heat shield from about 125 kilometers up, parachute, then, at about 1.5 kilometers, landing legs unfolded and retrorockets fired; at about 100 meters, the module hovered briefly to check for obstacles, then touched down. “Each and every step during the entry, descent and landing processes was executed with perfect accuracy,” said Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration. Tianwen-1 was the first Mars mission to orbit, land and deploy a rover with a single probe.

Zhurong

The rover, Zhurong, weighs about 240 kilograms and stands 1.85 meters tall. On May 22, 2021, it rolled down its ramp onto Mars: China became the second country to drive a vehicle on the planet. It covered 1,921 meters, then went dormant; in April 2023 it was still asleep. The orbiter operated for more than 780 days and served as a relay.

The results

In September 2022 the Chinese space agency presented the first results: water-bearing minerals in crusty rocks near the landing site, a sign that liquid water was active there about a billion years ago; landforms linked to water, supporting the hypothesis of an ancient ocean in Utopia Planitia; soil with high bearing strength. On April 24, 2023, in Hefei, it unveiled a color map of the whole planet, assembled from 14,757 images taken by the orbiter between November 2021 and July 2022, at 76-meter resolution. In all, the mission returned about 1,800 gigabytes of data.

Sources: CNSA, “Probe makes historic landing on Mars,” May 17, 2021 (7:18 a.m., southern Utopia Planitia, largest impact basin, ancient ocean, nine autonomous minutes, 320 million km, the steps and altitudes, Wu Yanhua and “Each and every step…,” first mission to orbit, land and deploy a rover at once, Zhurong 240 kg and 1.85 m); CNSA, “China unveils first global panoramic images of Mars,” April 24, 2023 (launch on July 23, 2020, 475 million km, 1,921 m, rover dormant, 14,757 images, Hefei, 76 m, about 1,800 GB); Chinese government, “China’s first Mars exploration mission achieves rich scientific results,” September 19, 2022 (780 days, hydrated minerals and a billion years, ocean hypothesis, soil bearing strength); NASA History, “25 Years of Continuous Robotic Mars Exploration,” and NASA’s NSSDCA database, via a search (orbit on February 10, 2021, rover rolled off on May 22, 2021, second country to drive on Mars).

Chapter 3 · 2024 – 2031 Bringing Mars back to Earth

Having brought back samples from the far side of the Moon, China is preparing the hardest mission of its planetary program: returning a piece of Mars to Earth.

The Moon experience

On May 3, 2024, the Chang’e 6 mission lifted off from Wenchang, on Hainan Island, aboard a Long March 5 rocket. It was the first attempt to retrieve samples from the far side of the Moon, after Chang’e 5, which collected samples from the near side in winter 2020. The spacecraft combined an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a reentry capsule: the same multi-part logic that will have to be applied to Mars.

Tianwen-3

In 2025 China launched Tianwen-2 toward a small near-Earth asteroid. On March 12, 2026, Tianwen-3’s chief designer, Liu Jizhong, announced that the Mars sample return mission would move into flight model development that year. Launch is planned for around 2028, with the aim of bringing back at least 500 grams of Martian samples by around 2031. The spacecraft will combine an orbiter, a returner, a lander, an ascender and a service module, forming two linked complexes. It will have to collect and seal samples on the surface, take off from Mars, rendezvous in orbit, transfer the samples and protect Earth from possible contamination. The scientific goals include searching for potential signs of life. Foreign scientists have been invited to take part. Liu Jizhong describes it as a “highly challenging, innovative and pioneering major space endeavor.”

On April 24, 2026, the Chinese government announced that “the second phase of planetary exploration” would be carried out during the 15th Five-Year Plan, from 2026 to 2030.

Sources: CNSA, “Historic journey from Chang’e 6 lifts off,” May 3, 2024 (Wenchang, Long March 5, far side, Chang’e 5 in winter 2020, the four components); Xinhua, “China’s Mars sample return mission to start flight model development in 2026: designer,” March 12, 2026 (Tianwen-2 launched in 2025, Liu Jizhong, flight models, launch around 2028, at least 500 g by around 2031, the five components, the technologies, search for life, foreign scientists, “highly challenging, innovative and pioneering”); Chinese government, “China advances space industry to new stage of high-quality development,” April 24, 2026 (second phase of planetary exploration, 2026-2030).