China Might Add Small Helicopter Like NASA's Ingenuity, Six-Legged Robot for Its Tianwen-3 Mars Mission

China is ramping up its Mars mission. According to a new report, it plans to add a helicopter and robot for its Tianwen-3 mission.

Update on China's Mars Sample Return Mission

There are new details coming out about China's Mars sample return mission. On April 22, a presentation at the International Conference on Deep Space Sciences in Hefei, Anhui province, revealed a summary of the -3 Mars mission's science goals.

According to Space.com, China is planning to add a small helicopter with a design resembling that of NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which is currently studying the surface of Mars, and a six-legged robot for the mission.

Slides from the presentation posted on the Chinese social media platform Weibo show a tiny drone resembling a helicopter and some sort of six-legged robot next to details about sample collecting for Tianwen-3.

During the presentation, Hou Zengqian from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and Liu Jizhong, director of China's Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center, shared important information about the Tianwen-3 mission's framework. In accordance with the slides posted on Weibo, China intends to launch two of its Long March 5 rockets simultaneously to transport two vehicle stacks to Mars sometime in the future, maybe as early as 2028.

The first will have a landing craft and a two-stage ascent vehicle, while the second will have an orbiter and a landing craft.

Landing on the Martian surface, gathering and storing up to 500 grams of material, and then launching back into space are all intended functions of the lander/launcher combination. The orbiter waiting for the sample transfer and rendezvous and the return spacecraft that will store the sample for return to Earth will be passively circling Mars.

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The two-stage launch vehicle, weighing around 790 pounds (360 kilograms), comprises a solid-rocket first stage and a liquid-propellant upper stage. With the help of the orbiter's robotic arm, the upper stage will rendezvous and dock with the orbiter. Then, in preparation for the orbiter's departure for Mars and its eventual return trip to Earth, samples will be transferred to its return vehicle.

Its mission objectives also mentioned mobile sampling with bullet points outlining various criteria for possible landing sites. If the mission is successfully launched in 2028, it will possibly return Martian samples in July 2031.

What Is Tianwen-3 Mission?

Tianwen-3 is China's Mars sample return mission. China launched Tianwen-1, its first autonomous extraterrestrial mission, and made a soft landing on Mars, where it released the Zhurong rover. Chang'e-5, China's challenging lunar sample return mission, was successfully completed only a few months after Tianwen-1's launch. To try an unprecedented Mars sample return in 2028, China plans to combine components of the said missions, according to The Planetary Society.

One of the top contenders for a planet that might support life in addition to Earth is Mars. Since the 1960s, numerous missions carrying various equipment have been flown toward and landed on Mars. Still, some concerns, like finding possible indications of past or present life, can only be resolved by analyzing Martian material in labs on Earth.

If Tianwen-3 is successful, it will be the first robotic mission to bring samples from Mars to Earth. The cooperative Mars sample return mission that NASA and the European Space Agency have planned will not reach Earth for another two years after Tianwen-3.