Beijing
China launched its first independent mission to Mars on Thursday as it gears up to take the leadership in space missions across the world with the US, European and Indian spacecraft either orbiting Mars or on its surface with other missions underway or planned already.
The probe, blasted off on the Long March 5 Y-4 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan, is expected to reach Mars in February where it will attempt to deploy a rover to explore the planet for 90 days.
If successful, the latest mission – Tianwen-1, or “Questions to Heaven”, a Chinese poem penned two millennia ago – will make China the first country to orbit, land and deploy a rover in its inaugural mission.
Eight spacecraft – American, European and Indian – are currently either orbiting Mars or on its surface with other missions underway or planned.
The United Arab Emirates launched its own mission to Mars on Monday, comprising an orbiter to study the atmosphere.
The United States is expected to be close behind, with plans to send a probe in coming months. The probe will deploy a rover on Mars called Perseverance, the biggest, heaviest, most advanced vehicle sent to the Red Planet by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
China’s probe will carry several scientific instruments to observe the planet’s atmosphere and surface, searching for signs of water and ice.
China previously made a Mars bid in 2011 with Russia, but the Russian spacecraft carrying the probe failed to exit the Earth’s orbit and disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean.
After watching the United States and the Soviet Union lead the way during the Cold War, China has poured billions of dollars into its military-led space programme.
“China joining (the Mars race) will change the situation dominated by the US for half a century,” said Chen Lan, an independent analyst at GoTaikonauts.com, which specialises in China’s space programme. China has made huge strides in the past decade, sending a human into space in 2003.—AFP
