Scientists hope to land the 240-kilometer rover in May in Utopia, a major impact center on Mars.
Beijing, China:
China’s Tianwen-1 probe went into orbit on the planet Mars on Wednesday, state media reported, after launching from southern China in July last year.
This is the latest step in Beijing’s ambitious space program, which aims to establish a crew space station by 2022 and finally put one on the moon, and it’s on a new field, outside open for US-China competition.
Tianwen-1 launched around the same time as the rival U.S. mission, and is expected to crash down on the Red Planet in May.
Its success coincides with the UAE’s “Hope” probe also entering Mars orbit – making history as the first interplanetary mission in the Arab world.
Billions of dollars have been poured into space exploration as China seeks to validate the rising global status and growing technological potential.
If the latter route succeeds, Tianwen-1 will make China the first country to move, land and use a rover on its maiden mission to Mars, said Chi Wang, head of the Center National Space Science at China Academy of Sciences research note.
“Scientifically, Tianwen-1 is the most complete mission for the study of Martian morphology, geology, mineralogy, space environment and the rotation of earth and water ice,” Chi wrote.
The five-ton Tianwen-1 – a name that translates as “Questions to Heaven” – consists of a Mars orbiter, a lander and a solar-powered rover.
Scientists hope to land the 240-kilogram (530-pound) rover in May in Utopia, a major impact center on Mars. Its orbiter will last for a Martian year.
For the three-month study of the planet’s soil and atmosphere, the mission takes photographs, maps and looks for signs of a past life.
The probe has already returned the first image of Mars – a black-and-white image that showed geological features including the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, a large piece of canyons on the Martian surface .
“Questions about being there”
Tianwen-1 is not the first attempt in China to reach Mars.
A previous mission with Russia in 2011 ended with its launch.
Mars has been a challenging target, with most missions since 1960, sent by Russia, Europe, Japan and India, ending in failure.
NASA’s permanence, which is expected to hit the Red Planet on Feb. 18, is the fifth rover to complete the orbit since 1997 – and they’ve all been American.
It is on a mission to look for signs of microbial life and try to fly a 1.8-kilogram helicopter drone on another planet for the first time.
“Mars is the most similar thing to Earth,” said Jonathan McDowell, a psychologist at the Harvard – Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
“It provides an opportunity to answer key questions about extraterrestrial life and the origin and evolution of the Solar System. “
China has come a long way in its race to catch up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts and cosmonauts have gained decades of experience in space exploration.
Beijing has already sent two rollers to the Moon – including the first to launch a successful launch on the far side.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and is published from syndicated food.)