Tianwen-1, China’s mission to Mars, enters orbit

Tianwen-1, China’s mission to Mars, enters orbit

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According to the National Space Administration of China (CNSA), Tianwen-1, whose name means ‘search for heavenly truth’, consists of an orbit, lander and a six-wheeled robber carrying scientific instruments.

The CNSA said it would gather important information about Mars’ geological structure, atmosphere, environment and soil and look for signs of water. The spacecraft is expected to land on the planet’s surface in May or June.

The Tianwen-1 makes China the sixth country in history to reach Mars.

Tianwen-1 was launched last July, along with two other international Mars missions: NASA’s Perseverance Rover and the United Arab Emirates’ Hope Probe.

All three missions were launched at about the same time due to an alignment between Mars and Earth on the same side of the sun, which provides a more efficient journey to the red planet.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover is expected to land on Mars on February 18.

China's Tianwen-1 returns first image of Mars
So far, the United States and the former Soviet Union are the only two countries to have landed a spacecraft on the surface of Mars. But the European Space Agency and India had previously sent spacecraft to enter the planet’s orbit – and on Tuesday the UAE joined them in its ranks, with its Hope Probe successfully entering the orbit.

With Tianwen-1, China is the first nation to attempt to send an orbit and a rover on its first homemade Mars mission. According to the scientific team behind the mission, the probe will “with a first attempt spin a rover, land and release and coordinate observations with an orbit.”

In contrast, NASA sent several orbits to Mars before ever attempting to land, as landing is a much more difficult task.

The Chinese rover is expected to stay for three months, hoping to gather important information about the planet.

China’s spatial ambitions

Wednesday’s news is the latest success for China’s ambitious space sector, which has changed rapidly over the past few decades.

Although Chinese authorities and state media have praised Tianwen-1 as the country’s first mission to Mars, this is not entirely true.

China’s first attempt to reach Mars was actually in 2011 with the Yinghuo-1 probe, which was supposed to orbit the red planet and study its environmental structure. It was launched from Kazakhstan in collaboration with the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission in November that year.
But the mission failed, with a malfunction that trapped the probe in orbit around the earth shortly after launch. In 2012, the spacecraft re-entered Earth atmosphere and fell back to earth and ended up in the Pacific Ocean.
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It was a disappointing blow to the country’s young space program, which has historically lagged behind other countries. Beijing first launched its first spacecraft flight in 2003, more than 40 years after NASA’s performance.

But all that has changed in recent years.

Under President Xi Jinping, who took office in 2013, China has invested billions of dollars in its space program, launched space laboratories and satellites into orbit, and landed three unmanned spacecraft on the moon.

The government singled out space as a national research priority, especially deep space exploration and spacecraft in orbit. Private Chinese companies are also increasingly investing in space research and technology.

In addition to the Tianwen-1 Mars mission, Beijing also plans to launch a permanent space station by 2022, and it is sending astronauts to the Moon – possibly in the 2030s.

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