“If you had asked me three years ago, I would have told you that it is ridiculous that they keep so much secret,” says Marc Klein Wolt, director of the Radboud Radio Lab in Nijmegen. He and his lab have been working with Chinese scientists for a few years.
That is how the Radboud Radio Lab delivered a radio antenna for a Chinese satellite that is now floating on the far side of the moon. It was launched in 2018. Klein Wolt: “I now know that it is their culture. If a launch or mission fails, the Chinese experience it as a loss of face. But if it succeeds, they will immediately announce much more, including their scientific goals.”
Questions in the sky
The name Tianwen means ‘questions in the sky’. There are still fewer answers. The whole outside world has to do it with one A4 of information about the mission. In Nature The lead scientist and his team briefly explained the objectives of the mission and what China is actually sending to Mars.
The scientific objectives include: mapping the surface of Mars, investigating the soil and water-ice distribution and observing the electromagnetic and gravitational field. “All missions to Mars ultimately contribute to the acquisition of scientific knowledge, but on the basis of this we cannot say much,” said Klein Wolt.
That is also the opinion of Artemis Westenberg, director of Explore Mars: “Alone the press kit from Perseverance already consists of 63 pages. Just to indicate the difference. “Perseverance is a Mars vehicle that the United States hopes to launch in late July.
Three birds with one stone
What is known about the mission is that the Chinese want to kill three birds with one stone. They are sending a satellite, a lander and a rover to Mars. A rover is a vehicle that can travel over the surface of the planet. Klein Wolt: “This is now a routine job for America, but for China it is in any case special if this mission succeeds. China only succeeded in landing a vehicle on the moon in early 2019. So that they are ready for this, is very fast. “
The Chinese state channel CCTV made an impression of the Mars mission:
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