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China on Friday named its first Mars exploration mission to be launched later this year as Tianwen-1, as it celebrated Space Day to mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of the country’s first satellite, Dong Fang Hong-1, in 1970.
Aiming to reach India, USA. In the US, Russia, and the European Union to reach the red planet, the Chinese mission to Mars plans to complete orbit, landing, and travel in one mission.
The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) named the Mars mission “Tianwen,” which means Heavenly Questions or Questions to Heaven, a poem written by the well-known Chinese poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC).
Also read | China completes landing test for first mission to Mars in 2020
In “Tianwen,” Qu Yuan posed a series of questions in verse about the sky, the stars, natural phenomena, myths, and the real world, showing his doubts about some traditional concepts and the spirit of seeking truth.
The CNSA said that all future planetary exploration missions of China will be called the Tianwen series, which means the perseverance of the Chinese nation in the search for truth and science and the exploration of nature and the universe, the state Xinhua news agency reported.
China in recent years has become a major space power with manned space missions and landing a rover on the dark side of the moon. He is currently building his own space station.
However, China’s attempts to send an exploratory probe to Mars, called Yinghuo-1, on a Russian spacecraft in 2011 failed shortly after launch and was declared lost and then burned during re-entry.
I know. The US, Russia, the EU, as well as India, have so far managed to send missions to Mars considered the most complex space mission.
India became the first Asian country to successfully launch its Mars orbital mission, Mangalyaan, which entered the orbit of the Red Planet in 2014.
India also became the first country to enter Martian orbit on its first attempt.
Last year, China conducted a key experiment to land a rover on Mars. The test was performed under simulated conditions.
The experiment was carried out on a test ground, the largest in Asia for test landing on extraterrestrial bodies.
Commenting on the experiment, Ye Peijian, chief scientist for the country’s space science and deep space missions, told official media in November last year that China’s mission to Mars includes an orbiting spacecraft, a spacecraft from Landing and a detachable rover to traverse the Martian surface, all in One Mission.
“If we succeed, this will mark the first in the history of the world’s expedition to Mars,” he said.
How to land safely on Mars is one of the biggest challenges facing the mission, he said.
The experiment simulated the gravity of Mars, about a third of the gravity on Earth, to test the design of the lander.
In greeting China’s space scientists on Space Day, President Xi Jinping said he expected aerospace workers to accelerate the construction of a powerful space industry.
Xi noted that no matter how conditions change, the spirit of self-reliance and hard work should not be lost.
In the new era, workers in the aerospace sector should follow the example set by senior scientists to courageously overcome difficulties and obstacles to further develop space science and technology.
China successfully launched its first Dong Fang Hong-1 satellite on April 24, 1970, ushering in national exploration of the universe and outer space. Since 2016, China has established April 24 as the country’s Space Day.
