China’s Mars Mission Could Answer the Ultimate Question: Are We Alone?

China is poised to make space exploration history again with its Tianwen-3 mission launching in 2028. With the audacious plan to drill two meters beneath Mars’ radiation blasted surface it aims to collect samples that could harbor ancient microbial life, and bring them back to Earth for the first time in human history! The mission’s most intriguing challenge isn’t the technical feat of interplanetary sample return, it’s the quarantine protocols required once these potentially life containing samples arrive on Earth making this mission as much about protecting our planet as it is about exploring another.