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Will China return Mars samples to Earth before the US does?
"If, as has been reported, China successfully executes even a 'grab sample' at Mars and returns it safely to Earth before the U.S., that would constitute a 'Sputnik Moment.'"
Similarly, Tianwen 3's planned mission profile involves collecting samples on the Martian surface, launch, rendezvous and docking in Mars orbit, followed by rocketing the gathered goodies to Earth. As for candidate Tianwen 3 landing spots on the Red Planet, "engineering constraints do not respect national boundaries," said James Head, a leading planetary scientist at Brown University in Rhode Island. "What should exasperate everyone is for the Chinese to use our 20 years and $12 billion of NASA and European Space Agency mission knowledge, our published technology and peer-reviewed science in order to scoop the free world," said Hubbard.
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