By 
February 21st, 2025
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft, designed to sample an asteroid, is now at the launch site and slated for launch in the first half of this year.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has announced the craft is at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
Tianwen-2’s targets: Collect samples from near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 and explore Comet 311P within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Research hotspot
“The main-belt comet is another type of asteroid. It should be noted that it is not a true comet, but it may share some characteristics with comets, which is why it is called a main-belt comet or active asteroid,” said Yan Wei, a senior engineer at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The comet may emit substances, including gas and particles, when it is close to the sun, which has been observed and is “another research hotspot,” Yan told China Central Television (CCTV).
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Earth’s quasi-satellite
Asteroid 2016 HO3, which orbits stably near Earth and is known as “Earth’s quasi-satellite,” was first spotted on April 27, 2016, by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii, operated by the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy and funded by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
This object contains ancient materials from the early solar system, reports CCTV, making it a “living fossil” useful for studying how the solar system formed and evolved.
With a diameter likely larger than 120 feet (40 meters) and smaller than 300 feet (100 meters), asteroid 2016 HO3 will be observed and analyzed by Tianwen-2, with the probe collecting samples of the object for return to Earth.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Following the sample delivery to Earth, the probe is to fly onward to comet 133P, doing so with the assistance of swingbys of Earth and Mars.
The entire mission is expected to last about 10 years.
Material components
“We will also analyze collected spectral data [of the asteroid] to examine some of its material components, to find out what is the similarity between its material composition and that of the Moon and Earth. This is a key focus of our exploration this time,” said Yan Wei, a senior engineer at the National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Asteroid 2016 HO3 has an orbit around the sun that keeps it as a constant companion of Earth.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
China’s earlier Tianwen-1 mission was an orbiter/lander/rover deploy mission at Mars. Tianwen-3 is to be the country’s Mars sample return mission in the coming years.
For a video showcasing the Tianwen-2 mission, go to:
Posted in Space News
