China assaulting Mars: the Asian giant successfully launched a probe Thursday, July 24, which will travel a long journey to the red planet, in the midst of diplomatic and technological rivalry with the United States.
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The machine was propelled into an azure sky by a Longue-Marche 5 rocket, the most powerful of the Chinese range, which took off in a cloud of smoke from the center of Wenchang, on the tropical island of Hainan (south ), noted an AFP team.
In an overwhelming temperature of 34 degrees, engineers and employees in blue coats cheered with a smile after the shot. The space agency confirmed the successful launch half an hour later.
The probe must arrive in orbit of Mars in February 2021. It will first have to complete the long Earth-Mars journey in some seven months: a distance of about 55 million kilometers, or 1,400 times around the world.
Ambitious, China hopes to do in this first independent attempt almost everything the United States has achieved in several Martian missions since the 1960s.
That is to say, place a probe in orbit, place a lander, then bring out a remote-controlled robot so that it analyzes the Martian surface.
“This is clearly a milestone for China. This is the first time it has ventured far into the solar system,” Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told AFP , in the USA.
“If it succeeds, it would be the first time in history that a non-American lander and unmanned robot have operated on Mars,” said Chen Lan, analyst for the GoTaikonauts.com site, specializing in the Chinese space program.
The mission is named “Tianwen-1” (“Questions to Heaven-1”) in homage to a poem from ancient China that deals with astronomy.
It offers a certain regain of prestige to Beijing against Washington, which has just ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, the latest avatar of the intense rivalry between the two giants of the Pacific.
“We are conducting this Mars exploration mission using space for peaceful purposes and with the ambition to unravel its mysteries,” Liu Tongjie, spokesperson for Tianwen-1, told reporters.
“The goal is not to engage in a competition with other countries,” he stressed.
The wheeled robot is expected to land on Mars in May 2021. Weighing more than 200 kilos, it is equipped with four solar panels and is supposed to be operational for three months.
Among its missions: conducting soil and atmospheric analyzes, taking photos, or even contributing to the mapping of the red planet.
China already has experience in this area: it rolled two small robots on the Moon, the “Jade Rabbits” 1 and 2, deposited in 2013 and 2019 respectively.
But the Earth-Mars distance is 140 times greater than the Earth-Moon path. Consequence: slower telecommunications and a longer trip, during which failures can occur.
The Asian country is not alone in taking advantage of the current reduced Earth-Mars distance to propel a probe towards the red planet: the United Arab Emirates launched theirs on Monday and the United States must do the same on July 30 .
China’s objectives with this mission are “the same as those of many space nations,” Carter Palmer, space specialist at US firm Forecast International, told AFP.
“Space exploration is a source of national pride. The ambition is also to improve humanity’s knowledge of Mars.”
China is investing billions of euros in its space program, to catch up with Europe, Russia and the United States.
She sent her first astronaut to space in 2003.
China is also launching satellites for itself or on behalf of other countries. It has just completed in June the constellation of its Beidou navigation system, rival of the American GPS.
The Asian giant also plans to assemble a large space station by 2022. And he hopes to send men to the Moon within ten years.
China had previously unsuccessfully tried a probe to Mars in 2011 during a joint mission with Russia.
Will luck be there this time? “The risks and difficulties are considerable,” including the perilous landing on Mars, notes Liu Tongjie. “But we are very confident.”
(With AFP)
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