The Chinese mission Tianwen-1 arrived on Wednesday after a journey of 203 days at the target planet Mars. Tianwen-1 consists of a landing vehicle, a rover and a satellite. The Chinese space agency will not attempt to land on the surface of Mars until May this year.
Tianwen-1 was launched in July 2020, the same month as the United Arab Emirates and United States Mars missions.
The Chinese Mars mission will, among other things, search for traces of life, attempt to map the surface of the planet, investigate the atmosphere and analyze the structure of the surface. ‘Tianwen’ is Chinese for ‘heavenly questions’ and refers to a poem from about 300 BC.
If China succeeds in landing in May, it will become the third country to ‘set foot’ on Mars, after the United States and the Soviet Union. Europe did try to land once, but that ended in a crash.
If the landing is successful in May, the solar-powered rover could begin its journey across the surface of Mars.
China made an unsuccessful attempt to go to Mars in 2011
The Tianwen-1 mission is the second Chinese attempt to reach Mars. In 2011, the Russian space agency Roscosmos launched the Phobos-Grunt mission to retrieve rocks from Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. This mission also carried the Chinese satellite Yinghuo-1.
Phobos-Grunt, however, remained in orbit because the engines were not working. Two months after launch, the device crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
Construction of a Chinese space station may start this year
China is not only targeting Mars. The country also hopes to bring its own new space station into low Earth orbit this year, between 350 and 435 kilometers. This station should be approximately 20 meters long and consists of four modules. Three astronauts must be able to live in the station at the same time.
The two previous Chinese space stations, Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2, crashed to Earth in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Chinese astronaut Nie Haisheng entered Tiangong-1 in 2013.
Chinese astronaut Nie Haisheng entered Tiangong-1 in 2013. Photo: ANP
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UAE became the first Arab land on Mars on Tuesday
The United Arab Emirates became it on Tuesday first Arab country with an interplanetary mission. The satellite Al Amal (Arabic for ‘hope’) successfully reached orbit around the red planet and will now conduct research there into the climate of the planet, among other things.
On February 18, the American Mars rover Perseverance must land on the celestial body to search for traces of life, among other things. Perseverance also has a helicopter with him to test whether it would be useful for exploring Mars.
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