China’s Mars mission leaves US for space dust with Nasa at least 4 years behind

Samples collected by Perseverance rover not expected until at least 2035, four years behind Tianwen-3’s ‘grab-and-go’ timetable

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The US space agency has revised its timeline to retrieve samples from Mars, putting it further behind Chinese plans to bring Martian rocks to Earth by 2031. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 8:00pm, 9 Jan 2025Updated: 9:16pm, 9 Jan 2025

China’s lead in the race to bring rocks back from Mars has grown by a big margin, as Nasa’s updated timeline for the return of samples collected by its Perseverance rover puts it at least four years behind.

Outgoing Nasa administrator Bill Nelson told a media briefing on Tuesday that the earliest arrival for the Perseverance samples – they are still being collected by the rover, which landed in 2021 – is now 2035.

In contrast, Chinese space officials announced in September that the country’s Tianwen-3 mission remained on track to deliver around 600 grams (21 ounces) of Martian soil by 2031.

Astrophysicist Quentin Parker from the University of Hong Kong said the race could represent “a Sputnik moment” – a reference to the Soviet Union’s launch of the first artificial satellite, which caught the US by surprise in 1957.

“China is leading Nasa not just by one year, but by several years, effectively taking a ‘long march’ ahead of America,” Parker said.

Ballooning budgets prompted Nasa last year to scrap its original plan for the Mars sample return mission in favour of seeking a cheaper, faster solution with input from private industry and academia.