Planetary Exploration of China

## Tianwen Project

Emblem for Tianwen

The Planetary Exploration of China, often known as simply the Tianwen Project, is a solar system exploration program led by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The program currently focuses on three planets, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, with future missions planned for exploration of Mercury and Saturn.

There have been 4 missions in this program thus far, 2 of them have been successful, while the other 2 are ongoing. Tianwen 1 was a Mars orbiter and rover mission, Tianwen 2 is an asteroid sample return, VOICE is a Venus orbiter mission and JSO is a mission to explore Jupiter and it's moon, Callisto.

### Missions

#### Tianwen 1 (2020)

Launched on July 23, 2020, the goal for Tianwen-1 was to observe the planet Mars with three spacecraft, an orbiter, a lander and a rover, after a seven-month journey, the spacecraft entered orbit around Mars on February 10, 2021, deploying the first of two deployable cameras to flyby the planet. After a few months of flying around Mars, the lander was deployed and descended to the surface on May 14, 2021, where the rover, named *Zhurong,* would be deployed, marking China as the second country in the world to land a rover on another planet. The rover operated for about a year until the winter came and it entered hibernation mode, it was expected to wake up once the winter came to a close, but it never did. The last attempt at communicating with the rover was on April 24, 2024, where they declared the mission is over.

#### Tianwen 2 (2025)

Launched on May 11, 2025, Tianwen-2 would deliver a small payload to collect a sample of 469219 Kamo'oalewa, before heading off to enter orbit around 311P/PANSTARS. The sample from Kamo'oalewa was successfully returned on January 17, 2029, and the main probe is still headed for its target, which it will reach in September 2034.

#### VOICE (2027)

Launched on February 5, 2027, VOICE is an orbiter that is studying Venus and image it's surface with a separate lander payload. The mission launched aboard Long March 3B, and after an 8-month journey, the probe entered orbit around Venus on December 28, 2027. The lander payload was eventually deployed and landed on the surface of Venus on June 15, 2028, and operated for up to 3 minutes, the longest any Venus lander had lasted. The orbiter would continue to operate until it ran out of fuel and was launched into interplanetary space on August 12, 2033, ending the mission.

#### Gan De (2030)

Launched on April 3, 2030, the goal for Gan De is to orbit around Jupiter (and later Callisto) to study the radiation waves and surface composition of Callisto. The mission was launched using Long March 5, it conducted a flyby of Venus on October 20, 2030 and two flybys of Earth on August 8, 2031 and November 23, 2033. The spacecraft is now headed off to Jupiter for it's main mission, which it will do in February 2036.

#### Tianwen 3 (2035, planned)

Tianwen 3 is the planned next mission to the program, it is planned to launch on July 2035 with two rockets, both Long March 5, two send a sample return of Mars. If the mission is successful, it will be the first sample return from another planet. After a seven month journey, the spacecrafts will enter orbit around Mars, the first spacecraft will land on Mars and deploy a small rover to explore the planet, as well as collect samples from the previous rover, Zhurong. the ascent vehicle will then launch, bringing the samples with, once it reaches orbit, it will then dock with the second spacecraft. The samples will be transported to the return vehicle where it will undock from the complex and take off back to Earth to return the samples.

#### Future Missions

Many future missions are planned for this program, including a potential Saturn-Uranus flyby mission, a Mercury orbiter mission, a Europa lander/rover mission and a Crewed Mars landing mission.