Tianwen 2

Tianwen 2 [CNSA]

Tianwen-2 is a Chinese asteroid sampling mission developed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), scheduled for launch no earlier than May 2025. It is part of China’s larger Tianwen planetary exploration program and follows the successful Tianwen-1 Mars mission.

The Tianwen-2 spacecraft is designed for a 10-year-plus mission, targeting multiple objects in the inner solar system. Its primary objective is the near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3), a quasi-satellite of Earth and a potential fragment of the Moon. The mission aims to retrieve samples from the asteroid and return them to Earth.

The spacecraft will employ a touch-and-go sampling technique, similar to Japan’s Hayabusa 2 and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, to collect surface material. In addition, it will test an anchor-and-attach method using four robotic arms to latch onto the asteroid’s surface. These arms will be equipped with drills, allowing the probe to secure itself to the 40-meter-wide space rock for sample acquisition—a first-of-its-kind technique.

After collecting samples, Tianwen-2 will return them to Earth using a reentry capsule, then continue on an extended mission to visit a main-belt comet or another small body.

The launch will take place aboard a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.