A quick story in the journal Science:
https://www.science.org/content/article/china-sets-out-sample-unusual-near-earth-asteroid
Dennis Normile China sets out to sample an unusual near-Earth asteroid .z2q2idq
Normile describes the Chinese Tianwen-2 mission and its target, the Earth-resonant asteroid (469219) Kamo’oalewa. The asteroid has the unusual property of orbiting the Sun in one of the commensurate orbits with Earth- a “quasi-satellite.” This makes it a rather odd subject of study, neither approaching us closely yet not straying far. The Tianwen-2 probe, assuming it succeeds, will be the fourth asteroid sample return, from the third country to do so. Should we get a sample of Kamo’oalewa, it should prove or disprove a hypothesis floating about: Kamo’oalewa’s spectrum makes it look like rocks from Earth’s natural satellite (not quasi-natural satellite). It’s possible that a large impact blasted off Moon rocks, some of which settled into the quasi-satellite state.
Tianwen-2 launches soon. Regardless of the origin of Kamo’oalewa, the ability to sample small solar-system bodies (SSSBs) is a valuable one. In any case, the main spacecraft will continue on to a second body (an objective with much less risk) after dropping off the collected sample. The mission will continue to comet 311P/Pan-STARRS. This is a main-belt comet- an unvisited population, likely some transition case between the icier asteroids and the more-depleted comets. Go Tianwen!