China plans to send a mission to Mars to gather regolith samples and return them to Earth by 2030, according to Xu Hongliang, a spokeswoman for the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
“A study mission on harvesting and transporting samples from a circumterrestrial asteroid, as well as the over flight of main-belt comets, will be carried out approximately by 2025,” Xu stated.
According to the spokeswoman, a trip to collect and transfer samples from Mars will take place around 2030.