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Marching towards the asteroid! Tianwen-2 begins its journey of "chasing stars".
Published:
2025-05-29
Xinhua News Agency, Xichang, May 29th (Reporter Song Chen, Liu Zhen) In the early morning of May 29th, at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, the Long March 3B carrier rocket lifted the Tianwen-2 probe of the planetary exploration project straight into the sky.
Xinhua News Agency, Xichang, May 29th (Reporter Song Chen, Liu Zhen) In the early morning of May 29th, at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, the Long March 3B carrier rocket lifted the Tianwen-2 probe of the planetary exploration project straight into the sky.
China's first asteroid exploration and sampling return journey has officially begun!
The reporter learned from the National Space Administration that at 1:31 am on May 29th, China successfully launched the Tianwen-2 planetary exploration project probe into space using the Long March 3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. After about 18 minutes of rocket flight, the probe will be sent into a transfer orbit from Earth to asteroid 2016HO3. Afterwards, the solar wings of the probe were deployed normally, and the launch mission was a complete success.
The Tianwen-2 mission has a design cycle of about 10 years, with the main objective of detecting, sampling, and returning asteroid 2016HO3 to Earth, followed by scientific exploration of comet 311P in the main belt. This is another important exploration trip for Chinese people in the vast stars after the exploration of the moon and fire.
Why choose to 'chase' these two stars in the vast starry sea? Han Siyuan, Deputy Director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the National Space Administration, introduced that asteroid 2016HO3 is one of the Earth's quasi satellites discovered by humans so far. It preserves the original information of the birth of the solar system and is a "living fossil" for studying the early material composition, formation process, and evolutionary history of the solar system, with extremely high scientific research value.
Comet 311P, located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is a small celestial body with both the material composition characteristics of traditional comets and the orbital characteristics of asteroids. Exploring the main belt comet can help understand the material composition, structure, and evolution mechanism of small celestial bodies, filling the gap in the research field of small celestial bodies in the solar system.
The journey of chasing stars, the first hit is crucial. This mission is the first Earth escape orbit launch of the Long March 3B carrier rocket, which requires higher precision for the rocket's orbit insertion. If the rocket entering orbit is compared to shooting, the difficulty this time is like pitching from Shanghai to the basket in Beijing. Basketball not only needs to be accurately entered into the basket, but also at a specific angle and speed, "said Wei Yuanming, an expert from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
Equipped with advanced equipment, one can accurately 'question the sky'. Chen Chunliang, an expert from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, introduced that the Tianwen-2 probe is equipped with 11 scientific equipment, including a mid field color camera and a multispectral camera, to assist the probe in detecting asteroids and main belt comets during flight and obtaining scientific data.
Due to the weak gravitational force of small celestial bodies, hard surfaces can easily cause the detector to bounce back, while loose surfaces are difficult to prevent the detector from sinking. Therefore, the control of the detector must be precise. It is reported that the detector will adopt a strategy of "flying while exploring while making decisions", starting from a distance of about 2000 kilometers from the target celestial body, and will independently carry out precise capture, gradual approach, scientific exploration, and sample collection of the target celestial body.
The implementation of Tianwen-2 mission has propelled the interstellar exploration journey forward and taken a new step in deep space exploration, "said Dan Zhongde, Director of the National Space Administration. The mission has a long implementation cycle, high risks and difficulties, and will go through more than 10 flight stages in the future. After completing the asteroid sampling mission, the Tianwen-2 return capsule is expected to land on Earth and complete the recovery by the end of 2027; Afterwards, the main probe will continue its flight as planned and proceed to the main belt comet 311P for further exploration.
From Tianwen-1's debut on Mars to Tianwen-2's journey of asteroid exploration and sampling return, Chinese astronauts are constantly exploring the vast and deep space with innovation and accumulation, uncovering more mysteries of the universe!