Beijing is working on to collect Red Planet rock samples

A joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) mission hopes to have Martian rocks on Earth by 2031

China is working on a 'complex mission' to take samples of rock and dust from Mars and bring them back to Earth by the end of this decade.  

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) mission will build on the success of its mission to return moon rocks to Earth, and the ongoing Tianwen-1 Mars rover mission, currently searching for signs of life on the Red Planet.

Named Tianwen-2, it could launch as early as 2028, according to Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of Tianwen-1, speaking at the Deep Space Forum in Shenzhen.

It would be like no other mission that has come before it, Rongqiao suggested, adding it would involve a pair of rocket launches to send a drill and a orbiter.

A joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) mission hopes to have Martian rocks on Earth by 2031, but China hopes to beat them to that goal, returning in 2030. 

A Long March 3B rocket would be used to launch a lander and ascent vehicle to Mars, that will go down to the Red Planet, take samples, and launch from Mars to put them in orbit around the planet. 

A separate launch, of a Long March 5 rocket, would send the orbiter and reentry capsules, that would be used to pick up the samples and return them to Earth.

Both rockets are expected to be launched within the same launch window in 2028, reaching Mars at about the same time. 

Assuming the mission goes ahead as suggested, China could become the first nation to return samples of another planet to the Earth. 

While NASA rovers have been sent to Mars with miniature laboratories on board, bringing samples to Earth will allow for much more extensive analysis. 

Mars is increasingly becoming a battleground in the 'new space race' that is developing between China and the west.

If China does manage to get their samples back to Earth by 2030, NASA and ESA will only be a year behind.

The European and US mission will return samples already being collected on the Red Planet by the NASA Perseverance rover.

An ESA built 'Fetch' rover will be sent to Mars no earlier than 2026 to pick up tubes left on the Martian surface by Perseverance, and an ascent vehicle will put them in Mars orbit.