Sun Jiezhou, a senior engineer at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), told China Central Television (CCTV) that he is working on the probe of the Tianwen-3 mission, which will go to the Red Planet to collect soil samples. It’s going “relatively smoothly.” The mission is planned to launch around 2030.

Sun Jiezhou’s interview comes amid reports that NASA is reconsidering its mission to return soil samples from Mars due to funding and scheduling issues.

In February, the scientific journal JGR Planets published an article naming three pre-selected landing sites for the Tianwen-3 mission. These are the Amazon Plain, the Utopia Plain (the area where the Zhurong traveler landed) and the Chris Plain.

China’s plan to send samples from Mars may well be implemented before the NASA mission, as scientists from the Celestial Empire use a simpler approach. China plans to conduct two launches of its Changzheng-5 superheavy rocket, which will launch a lander and a booster, as well as an orbital module and a reentry module. Atmospheric entry, descent and landing will be based on technologies used during the landing of the Tianwen-1 rover.

A successful mission would be a major engineering breakthrough and bring the most important scientific results. The samples will be able to provide unique insights into geological processes and the history of the Red Planet.