China has announced the Tianwen-3 mission, set for 2028, to collect samples from Mars. According to the country's National Space Administration (CNSA), they expect to obtain the valuable material by 2030, well before NASA or any other space agency.

Liu Jizhong, chief planner of the mission, explained that the goal is to obtain materials from the Martian surface to study it and learn more about the presence of water, and possibly some form of life.

The outbound journey will take nine months with current technology. However, the return must be synchronised with the orbit, delaying departure by another nine or ten months, before making the journey back.

In the race to dominate space, China and the United States are the only countries to have achieved a safe and controlled Mars landing. Now, Chinese researchers aim to be the first to investigate possible signs of life from the oxidised planet in Earth-based laboratories.