Chinese spacecraft Marswen-1 Mars: everything we know about the daring mission


marstianwen

Artist impression of the three spacecraft that China will send to Mars in the coming weeks.

Astronomy of nature

Sometime in late July (or early August, perhaps) a Long March 5 rocket will take off from the China Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the island of Hainan in the South China Sea. It will take three robotic explorers, designed and engineered by the China Space Agency, on a historic journey to Mars. The mission is known as Tianwen-1, taken from the poem of the same name and freely translated as “questions to heaven”.

But with just a few days before launch, some of the most important questions are related to the mission itself. China has been tight-lipped on the main milestones of the mission and information has been difficult to come by.

“In the months leading up to a major mission, there is close to radio silence, which is frustrating,” says Andrew Jones, a journalist reporting on China’s space program for SpaceNews.com. “We didn’t get anything for Chang’e-4 until the landing success was confirmed.”

the Chang’e-4 mission to the moon is one of the most important achievements of the Chinese space exploration program. In January 2019, China was able to deliver a rover to the far side of the Moon: the first time a nation had accomplished such a feat. Unlike the recent NASA and SpaceX mission to the International Space Station, the launch of Chang’e-4 was not broadcast worldwide in real time. There was no live stream for the launch and there were no takeovers of the Chinese mission celebrating when scientists and engineers learned of its success.

We know where Tianwen-1 will launch, but the exact details of when Remains a Mystery On July 14, China Daily reported that the spacecraft had been transported to the launch facility ready for takeoff. A planned date for July 23 has long been proposed, but was never confirmed.

“We should see the rocket deployed on the platform on 17 (or maybe 16) if the July 23 date is true,” says Jones, noting that this type of time frame has been used in previous launches of the Long March rocket. 5.

On the English version of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) website, there are no updates on the Tianwen-1 mission. CNSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On the Chinese social network Weibo, it’s a different story. Quanzhi Ye, an astronomer at the University of Maryland, says the Haswhag Tianwen-1 on Weibo has generated 29,000 tweets and 150 million readings as of July 15.

Ye notes that it is not unusual for China to shut up before the mission, but he also says he has seen an improvement in communication over the past decade, noting that “today scientists can be seen discussing mission concepts in the media. communication and much discussion about the Chinese space program on Weibo. “

What we know about Tianwen-1

Landing on the moon is difficult, and landing on its end even more so, but Mars is a completely different cauldron of cosmic fish. The red planet will be at its closest point to Earth in late July., at around 36 million miles (58 million km), but Tianwen-1 will still have to navigate a much greater distance to land on the surface of Mars sometime in April 2021. That requires great navigation precision and a terrifying descent surface. As the United States and Russia know, Mars is remarkably good at killing robotic explorers. Above 50% of missions sent to the red planet fail.

The Chinese mission will increase the difficulty a little more. Tianwen-1 is a triple threat: it contains an orbiting spacecraft, a lander, and a scout vehicle.

“Tianwen-1 will orbit, land and launch an entire rover on the first attempt, and will coordinate observations with an orbiter,” the mission’s chief scientist wrote in a short article for the journal Nature Astronomy on July 13. “Non-planetary missions have been implemented in this way.”

Will we be able to follow the historic launch live? Potentially. Quanzhi Ye points out rumors circulating on Weibo that the Tianwen-1 launch will be broadcast live on China Central Television.


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Tianwen-1 Scientific Goals

With three spacecraft targeting Mars, China hopes to provide a “comprehensive and comprehensive study of the entire planet” while using the explorer to examine locations on the surface with high scientific interest.

As detailed in the article in Nature on July 13, there are five main scientific goals that were first set in 2018:

  • Create a geological map of Mars
  • Explore the characteristics of the Martian soil and possibly locate water ice deposits
  • Analyze the composition of the surface material.
  • Investigate the Martian atmosphere and climate on the surface
  • Understand the electromagnetic and gravitational fields of the planet.

The orbiter is equipped with seven instruments. It contains two cameras, a subsurface penetration radar, a spectrometer to reveal the mineral composition of the surface, and instruments to analyze charged particles in the Martian atmosphere.

The rover, which is about twice the mass of Chinese Lunar Yutu-2 Rover At around 240 kilograms (530 pounds), it contains six instruments and also includes two cameras, as well as a radar and three detectors that can be used to understand the composition of the soil and the magnetic fields of Mars.

The rover’s landing site has been the subject of speculation, but the Nature article confirms that it will be somewhere on Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in the northern latitudes of Mars and the same place where NASA’s Viking 2 mission landed in the 1970s. The expected landing date is approximately two to three months after Tianwen- 1 reaches Mars orbit, so if everything goes as planned, we can wait sometime in April or May 2021.

Mars is the place

July and August seem to be an impressively busy time for Mars.

China will not only launch Tianwen-1, but the UAE will have sent its own Martian explorer to the red planet: an orbiter named Hope. The orbiter will examine and analyze the thin atmosphere on Mars to try to explain why it is so unusual.

NASA is also entering the exodus from Earth. Space agency aims to launch its Perseverance rover no earlier than July 30. The next generation rover will also carry a helicopter known as wit, a technological demonstration that aims to become the first vehicle to fly across the surface of another planet.