Tianwen 2 advances on key mission

China's Tianwen 2 asteroid sampling spacecraft has been on its interplanetary itinerary for more than four months, and is now over 43 million kilometers away from Earth, according to the China National Space Administration.

The robotic probe is currently traveling on a transfer trajectory toward its destination, a near-Earth asteroid called 2016 HO3, and is in good working condition, the space administration said in a news release on Wednesday.

It is about 45 million km from the celestial body, the administration added.

The CNSA also released an image taken by the craft's monitor camera, showing Earth and the probe's white-colored return capsule and a national flag.

The Tianwen 2 mission, which is China's first attempt to bring pristine asteroid samples back to Earth, was launched on May 29, when a Long March 3B rocket carrying the robotic probe blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province.

The probe's primary objective is to reach 2016 HO3, a small asteroid that is 40 to 100 meters wide, in the summer of 2026. It will study the celestial body up close using a suite of 11 instruments including cameras, spectrometers and radars, before deploying special devices to collect surface substances.

The asteroid, which is also known as 469219 Kamo'oalewa, orbits the sun and, therefore, is a constant companion of Earth. It is too distant to be considered a true satellite of Earth, but is the best and most stable example to date of a quasi-satellite.

After the asteroid samples are collected, the Tianwen 2 probe will fly back to Earth's orbit and send a capsule containing the precious materials to the ground.

The samples will be distributed among scientists, who will examine their physical properties, chemical and mineralogical content and isotopic composition, contributing to studies on the formation and evolution of asteroids and the early solar system.

Delivering the samples to Earth will not be the end of the mission. The Tianwen 2 spacecraft will then enter the second phase of its journey, flying toward a main-belt comet called 311P to conduct a remote-sensing survey and transmitting the data back to Earth for scientific research, according to the CNSA.

The entire mission is expected to yield groundbreaking discoveries and expand the understanding of Earth and small celestial bodies inside the solar system, scientists said.

In another development, China's Chang'e 6 lunar mission was presented on Monday with the 2025 IAF World Space Award in the team category at the 76th International Astronautical Congress in Sydney organized by the International Astronautical Federation.

The federation recognized the Chinese robotic mission as "the world's first lunar sampling return from the far side of the moon" that marks "a historical milestone in human lunar exploration".

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn