China to build planetary protection lab for Mars sample-return mission

China is pressing ahead with its Mars sample-return mission, for which a planetary protection laboratory is to be built in the first phase of Hefei's Deep-Space Science City in east China's Anhui Province, according to the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), which will undertake part of the laboratory's operation.

The planetary protection laboratory will implement a two-way protection system that guards both the returning Martian samples and Earth's biosphere. Its tasks encompass sample sterilization, unsealing, processing and biological risk assessment. The facility is designed to support the implementation of major deep-space missions and to enable scientific research on Martian samples.

In April, the China National Space Administration released the implementation roadmap for the Tianwen-3 mission. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch around 2028. Sample collection and return to Earth are expected to be completed by around 2031.

Li Hang, director of the development planning department at DSEL, said the laboratory will serve scientific research findings from extraterrestrial samples. He also confirmed that China will follow the planetary protection policies of the Committee on Space Research to prevent biological contamination of Mars by terrestrial organisms and to protect Earth from any potential extraterrestrial life forms that may be carried back in the samples.

The new laboratory is part of China's interplanetary exploration program. In May 2021, China's Zhurong rover landed in southern Utopia Planitia on Mars. By May 2022, it had traveled 1,921 meters across the Martian surface and collected abundant scientific data.