This is John Bachelor, conversation with my good friend Bob Zimmerman about the Chinese success so far of a sample return from the far side of the moon.

Bob analyzes their success and points towards Mars. You will recall the Mars

sample return mission that is attached to curiosity as it wonders and

drills and leave samples behind to be picked up.

That mission has been suspended, postponed because of expense, because of design.

But Bob sees the sample return on the far side of the moon

is a predicate for much more for China. Bob Zimmerman, sample return

far side of the moon. Last I checked, the sample is inbound to Earth from the

backside of the moon. More of this later. Because if you... Remember this is China.

Our, the sample return mission that NASA and Europe are trying to put together is the Western attempt.

What China is right now doing is doing dress rehearsals for their sample return mission to Mars.

They have one plant.

And what they're doing is developing all the components

to make it work very efficiently,

unlike the European NASA program, which has been a mess and very expensive and over budget, behind schedule, and not well thought out and we have no idea for it and fly. The odds right now, if I had to make

odds I would say the lead for getting a sample back from Mars is probably China with

SpaceX and it's Starship number two and the

NASA of European program is way down on the list.