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NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission is dead

456 points · 391 comments · Muhammad523

  1. peri-cl · · focus · HN ↗
    This article only obliquely mentions in the last paragraphs, but there's a parallel Chinese program that recently brought back samples from the moon, and will attempt Mars sample return, launching in 2028,

    <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Tianwen-3" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Tianwen-3

    1. notabee · · focus · HN ↗
      Anyone wanting to be involved in the future of scientific research should probably start learning Mandarin. We&#x27;re going the way of the Soviets, where political officers will quash any science that doesn&#x27;t fit their ideology. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;2026&#x2F;09&#x2F;trump-planning-to-hand-veto-power-over-nih-grants-to-political-appointee&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;2026&#x2F;09&#x2F;trump-planning-to-ha...
      1. gamblor956 · · focus · HN ↗
        where political officers will quash any science that doesn&#x27;t fit their ideology

        China also does this. We just don&#x27;t hear about it because they also quash the reporting.

        1. Gagarin1917 · · focus · HN ↗
          Yeah there are MAJOR reasons that a huge amount of Chinese scientists immigrate to the US every year, but almost no US scientists immigrate to China.

          These are smart people, they’re not going to make major life decisions based on simplistic takes from political opportunists.

          1. trumpdong · · focus · HN ↗
            The reason is money. The US has the world reserve currency which basically means infinite money. This will soon end and China will have the world reserve currency.
            1. r14c · · focus · HN ↗
              Its also close to impossible to immigrate to China. I&#x27;ve checked it out myself since I&#x27;m really impressed by the work Huawei is doing with high density wireless nnetworks. HK was an easier (still difficult) path, but I haven&#x27;t checked again since it changed hands.
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