Sun Zezhou, chief designer of Tianwen-1, delivered a presentation about China's Mars exploration goals. In it, he gave us some details about the upcoming Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission.

Tianwen-3 is currently imagined to be a two-launch architecture with a late-2028 launch of a Long March 5 carrying the lander and ascent vehicle, and a Long March 3 carrying an orbiter and return module. Landing on Mars would occur around September 2029 during Martian autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere, so there may be difficulties with low solar insolation and sand storms. The lander sampling philosophy would resemble a Chang'e 6 style "grab what's near you" set-up with a drill, though potentially carrying a four-legged robot(?) to collect other samples. The ascent vehicle is a two-stage rocket but the details haven't been fully worked out.

The mission would leave Mars in October 2030 and return to Earth in July 2031.

The 2022Jun20 Space News article by Andrew Jones says, "The ascent vehicle will consist of two stages, using either solid or liquid propulsion, and will be required to reach a speed of 4.5 kilometers per second, according to the presentation."

It will be interesting to see how the ascent vehicle turns out, solid or liquid, and how small they are able to make it. Geologists have been hoping for multiple samples from more than one place on Mars. Multiple missions can be made more affordable by a smaller MAV (in addition to MSR missions done by multiple nations).

A serious contender has March 2020 for NASA sample return.

??

March 2030?