PREVIEW: Colleague Rick Fisher presents the PRC's phased asteroid missions and also reports on the PRC ambition to dominate the solar system with men and machines. More on.

PREVIEW: Colleague Rick Fisher presents the PRC's phased asteroid missions and also reports on the PRC ambition to dominate the solar system with men and machines. More on. august 1953.


CLAUSE 4.0: Let me search for more information about China's broader solar system exploration strategy and Rick Fisher's analysis.

China's Phased Asteroid Mission Strategy

Bottom Line Up Front: China has developed an ambitious multi-phase approach to asteroid exploration and planetary defense, positioning itself as a major space power with systematic missions targeting asteroids, Mars, Jupiter, and potentially the outer solar system through 2050.


Current Asteroid Missions (2025-2030)

Tianwen-2 (2025): China will launch the Tianwen-2 mission to sample a near-Earth asteroid next year. The mission will first focus on sampling near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3). After delivering samples to Earth, the spacecraft will use our planet for a gravitational slingshot maneuver and set it on a course for main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS. SpaceNewsSpace

Planetary Defense Test (2025-2030): China is planning its first mission to impact an asteroid in the name of planetary defense. The mission will serve a dual purpose: One craft will impact the asteroid while its partner observes the space rock to learn more about the solar system and its formation. SpaceSpace China wants to test changing the orbit of a potentially hazardous asteroid with an impactor spacecraft and also accurately measure how much its orbit is altered. China will launch 2-in-1 asteroid deflection mission in 2025 | Space


Expanding Solar System Dominance Strategy

Deep Space Exploration Roadmap: China's plans for exploring the outer Solar System are taking shape, with Jupiter's moon Callisto and one of the ice giants the main targets. PlanetarySpaceNews China has unveiled a long-term planetary exploration roadmap for planetary habitability and the search for extraterrestrial life. China to seek out life in the solar system as NASA faces cuts, commercial players expand ambitions - SpaceNews

Tianwen-4 Jupiter Mission (2029): Zhu's outline of the mission sees a Tianwen-4 launch in September 2029. The spacecraft will use a flyby of Venus in 2030 plus further gravity assists from Earth in 2031 and 2033, to arrive at Jupiter in December 2035. China's plans for outer Solar System exploration

Ice Giant Missions (2035-2050): Zhu provides a potential launch date of 2035 for a Uranus mission, arriving in orbit in 2050. If a Neptune mission is chosen instead, it would launch in 2040 and arrive in 2058. China's plans for outer Solar System exploration


Infrastructure and Capabilities Development

Planetary Defense Force: China is recruiting for a planetary defense force to combat the threat of asteroids colliding with Earth. The successful candidates will be required to research tasks related to near-Earth asteroid monitoring and early warning systems. Wanted: 3 asteroid watchers for China's 'planetary defense force'

Advanced Detection Systems: The "compound eye," a 25-antennae network of radars, is under construction to bounce signals off deep space objects to determine their potential threat to Earth. The project is set to be completed in 2025. China targets its first planetary defense test mission


Strategic Implications

Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, has been analyzing China's space ambitions extensively. Rick Fisher talks about China's growing space ambitions—from the Moon, to Mars, to asteroids. Throughout the program, Rick talked about Chinese space policy, goals, objectives, hardware, all of it, as tools of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and as an implement of the PLA (People's Liberation Army). NTDThespaceshow

China's systematic approach includes not just exploration but potential dual-use capabilities, advanced manufacturing in space (including plans for a lunar base by the 2030s Space-Based Solar Power and 21st-Century Geopolitical Competition | RealClearDefense and space-based solar power), and the development of comprehensive planetary defense systems that could have both protective and offensive applications.

This represents a coordinated strategy to establish Chinese leadership across the solar system through the combination of scientific exploration, resource utilization, and strategic positioning—what some analysts view as China's bid to become the dominant space power of the 21st century.