China Plans To Send A Robotic Spacecraft to An Asteroid

China is reportedly planning on sending a spacecraft to a neighbouring asteroid called 2016 HO3, which is also known as Kamo‘oalewa. The Chinese spacecraft will collect samples of the asteroid and deliver it to Earth before visiting a comet in the asteroid belt. The mission is expected to help scientists figure out how our solar system was formed.

Why this asteroid instead of the thousands of others in deep space? The scientists want to study 2016 HO3 because it is a rare asteroid given how its orbit lines up with that of Earth's. 2016 HO3 orbits the Sun. The asteroid was first discovered in 2016 and is less than 100 meters wide. The distance of the asteroid to earth is believed to be 100 times the distance between the Earth and the moon. This makes the asteroid an ideal subject for China's mission.

Although the Chinese government is yet to officially authorize the mission, reports claim that the China National Space Agency (CNSA) has already begun inviting international scientists to participate in the mission. The mission could be launched in 2024, CNSA’s international cooperation manager Yang Ruihong told Nature, Scientific American reported.

CSNA's plan is to place a robotic probe on 2016 HO3, collect smaples of the asteroid and return to Earth's orbit to drop a capsule that contains the samples. The spacecraft would then undertake a seven-year long journey to visit a comet, known as 133P/Elst-Pizzaro, located beyond Mars, in the asteroid belt of the solar system. Although 133P is sometimes considered to be an asteroid because of where it is located, the object has a "tail" made of dust and gas, as is customary to all comets.

CNSA's mission aims to analyze samples from the asteroid as well as the comet to unearth further data, which might help shed light on how small planetary objects were formed and evolved in our solar system. The mission might also help scientists discover more about the origins of life on earth.

Asteroids are believed to contain minerals and other particles that could reveal information about how planetary objects come into existence and how life itself is formed. Recently, samples collected from the Itokawa asteroid by Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft were analyzed by researchers, who discovered that the space rock contained a surprisingly abundant amount of water. The discovery led scientists to theorize that half of the earth's oceans may have come into existence after our planet collided with a water-rich asteroid millions of years ago.