China’s Tianwen-3 mission aims to bring Mars samples back to Earth around 2031 after launch around 2028: report

An exhibition on China’s lunar exploration program is held at the World Expo Museum in Shanghai, featuring planetary exploration missions including Tianwen-1, Tianwen-2, and Tianwen-3 in July 2025. Photo: VCG

China"s Tianwen-3 planetary exploration mission is scheduled to launch around 2028 and bring samples from Mars back to Earth around 2031, with five international and Hong Kong and Macao cooperation projects selected to join the mission, the China National Space Administration announced on Friday during the 11th China Space Day events, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

On the same day, the China National Space Administration officially announced the selected cooperation projects for the Tianwen-3 mission.

The orbiter will carry three cooperative payloads: the Mars PEX spectrometer, led by the exploration working group of the Committee on Space Research, to search for traces of life on Mars and detect the mineral composition of the Martian surface; the Mars molecular ion composition analyzer, led by the Macau University of Science and Technology, to study the escape process of the Martian atmosphere; and the laser heterodyne spectrometer, led by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, to detect the profile distribution of water isotopes in the Martian atmosphere and Martian wind fields.

The service module will carry a Mars surface-object hyperspectral imager, led by the University of Hong Kong, for detecting traces of life, hydrous minerals, and conducting resource surveys.

The lander will carry a laser retroreflector array, led by the Frascati National Laboratory of Italy"s National Institute for Nuclear Physics, to deploy a precise reference point on the Martian surface.

Since the China National Space Administration issued its announcement of cooperation opportunities in April 2025, it has received 28 expressions of interest. Following the selection principles of high scientific value, strong mission support, engineering feasibility, and technological maturity, five cooperation projects were ultimately selected, Xinhua reported.

Global Times