China has announced plans to complete the world's first AI-driven geological map of Mars by the end of 2028, a project that aims to reconstruct the red planet's ancient water history and introduce a Chinese framework for Martian geological time that Beijing hopes will become a new global standard.
The chief scientist of China's Tianwen-3 mission, Hou Zengqian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced the plan at a symposium in Beijing on Monday (28 September).
The new-generation map will cover the entire surface of Mars, built by fusing data from China's Zhurong rover with orbital imagery, radar, gravity and magnetic readings from Chinese, U.S., and European Space Agency probes.
Artificial intelligence will sit at the heart of the project, processing the vast dataset from local mineral identification all the way to global tectonic structures, with geologists' expertise embedded into the models to keep results scientifically grounded.
The map will draw on key discoveries from the Zhurong rover, which landed on Mars in 2021 as part of China's Tianwen-1 mission. Data from Zhurong has provided evidence that a vast ancient ocean existed on Mars around 3.5 billion years ago, and that short-lived flooding events may have occurred as recently as 1.6 billion years ago.
On that basis, China is also proposing a new framework for dividing Martian geological time, replacing the existing system defined by crater density rather than absolute dates, with a more precise Chinese-developed chronological standard that Beijing hopes to establish as international consensus.
The project will also serve as critical scientific groundwork for Tianwen-3, China's planned Mars sample-return mission launching in late 2028. The mission aims to collect at least 500 grams of Martian material and return the samples to Earth by around 2031, a feat that, if successful, would make China the first country in the world to complete a Mars sample-return mission and a further milestone in Beijing's rapidly expanding planetary exploration programme.
The existing international framework for Martian geological time divides the planet's history into three broad periods, the Noachian, Hesperian and Amazonian, based on the density of visible impact craters rather than absolute dates.
China's new scheme aims to introduce a more precise, data-driven alternative, and Hou has said Beijing intends to push for the framework to be adopted as international consensus.
The project will draw not only on Chinese data but also on information from U.S. and European Space Agency Mars probes, creating an integrated global database that couples imagery, spectra, radar, gravity and magnetic readings. Artificial intelligence will be used to interpret the fused dataset across multiple scales, from identifying minerals at specific sites to mapping planet-wide geological formations.
The completed map will also include high-resolution 1:50,000-scale geological charts of the planned Tianwen-3 landing site, providing mission planners with detailed terrain data ahead of the spacecraft's arrival.
Scientists say the mapping methodology could also serve as a template for future geological surveys of other planetary bodies, including the Moon, Venus and asteroids.
The Mars mapping project is the latest milestone in China's rapidly expanding planetary exploration programme. China became only the second country after the United States to successfully land a rover on Mars when Zhurong touched down in May 2021 as part of the Tianwen-1 mission.
The rover operated on the Martian surface for nearly a year, travelling more than 1.9 kilometres and gathering data that has since underpinned several major scientific findings.
Tianwen-3, planned for a late 2028 launch, will represent a significant leap forward. The mission is designed around two separate launches, one carrying the lander and ascent vehicle, the other an orbiter and Earth return module, with the goal of collecting Martian surface and subsurface samples and returning them to Earth by approximately 2031.
No country has yet completed a Mars sample-return mission.
China's geological mapping institute, which has been producing maps for 70 years, from regional surveys to lunar charts, now has Mars firmly in its sights. As its Director Yang Zhiming noted at Monday's symposium, the institute's work has given China's planetary programme the scientific grounding to decide where to go, what to explore, and why.
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