Beijing, March 3. China plans to launch a space mission to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid, the China National Space Administration has reported.
The mission, which will be called Tianwen-2, will travel to an asteroid named 2016 HO3, extract samples from it and return to Earth, after which it will head for comet 311P.
2016 HO3, also known as Kamo’oalewa, is an asteroid discovered in 2016 with a diameter between 40 and 100 meters.
It is considered a semi-satellite of Earth, because it stays close to our planet and takes almost the same time to go around the Sun.
The Tianwen-2 has received official approval, the agency reported Thursday, adding that experts involved in the project will hold a seminar in April on the scientific exploration the mission will carry out.
Tianwen-2 will succeed Tianwen-1, China’s first exploration mission to Mars and which continues to send data from the Red Planet.
In recent years, China has invested heavily in its space program, achieving milestones such as landing the Chang’e 4 probe on the far side of the Moon in 2019, becoming the first country to do so. EFE
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