China aims for Mars mission around 2028,’ vying for space power [Video]

China’s historic attempt to bring samples from Mars to Earth could launch as soon as 2028, two years earlier than previously stated, according to a senior mission official.Related video above: SpaceX launches Polaris missionThe country’s Tianwen-3 mission would carry out two launches “around 2028” to retrieve the Martian samples, chief mission designer Liu Jizhong said at a deep-space exploration event in eastern China’s Anhui province last week.The projected mission launch is more ambitious than a 2030 target announced by space officials earlier this year, though the timeline has fluctuated in recent years. A 2028 target appears to return to a launch plan described in 2022 by a senior scientist involved with the Tianwen program — a mission profile that would see samples returned to Earth by 2031.The latest remarks follow China’s landmark success in retrieving the first samples from the far side of the moon in June. It also comes …