China is expected to launch in July, a probe, and a small remote-controlled robot to Mars, its first mission towards the red planet, has announced the sponsor of the project.
The country is investing billions of euros in its space program : it launches satellites, plans to send men to the Moon, and comes during may to launch a new ship. “Our goal was to send the probe to Mars current 2020 “, said the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). “This major project is progressing as planned and we’re aiming for a launch in July “, she stressed Sunday in a statement.
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Arrival 2021
It would take seven months to traverse the Earth-Mars distance, and the probe of chinese will not come to the destination before 2021. The distance is constantly changing but is at a minimum of 55 million kilometers. Called “Tianwen” (” Questions to heaven “), the chinese mission has three objectives : to place in orbit around mars, a probe, landing on the red planet, and then téléguider to the surface a robot to carry out analyses.
China has already carried out a similar operation on the Moon, where she was introduced as early as 2013, a small “rover” remote-controlled-wheel (called ” jade Rabbit “), and his successor in January 2019 (the hidden face of the moon, a first in the world).
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The asian country is not the only one on the market niche of mars missions. The United States, who have already sent four vehicles exploratory on March, expected to launch between June and August of their fifth (named ” Perseverance “). It should arrive around February 2021. The united arab Emirates will launch on July 15, the first probe Arabic in the direction of the red planet, from Japan. By contrast, the mission for the Russian-european ExoMars, a victim of technical difficulties compounded by the epidemic of Covid-19 and who was hoping to launch this summer a robot to Mars, has been postponed to 2022.
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