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Sunday, July 26, 2020, 18:10
China's first Mars mission faces unprecedented challenges
By Xinhua
Sunday, July 26, 2020, 18:10 By Xinhua

People watch as a Long March 5 rocket carrying China's Mars probe lifts off at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan province, July 23, 2020. (YANG GUANYU / XINHUA)

BEIJING - China's Mars spacecraft has embarked on a long journey with great risks and challenges to the Earth's neighbor.

China's first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen 1 (which means Questions to Heaven) aims to orbit, land on and rove Mars in one mission, an unprecedented achievement.

We only have a limited understanding of Mars. There are still many uncertainties about the environment and great risks.

Geng Yan, An offficial at the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center, China National Space Administration

Mars will be a focus of China's deep space exploration, and the Mars mission has a higher starting point because China laid good foundations and accumulated experience in its lunar exploration program, said Geng Yan, an official at the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.

China is a latecomer in planetary exploration. Chinese space experts believe that the goal of exploration should be reachable, but not too easy.

"We hope the mission will be innovative and help push forward scientific and technological development," Geng said.

ALSO READ: China's probe radar to explore internal structure of Mars

However, the challenges are also unprecedented.

Although China has achieved a series of successes in lunar exploration with four probes sent to the moon, Mars poses new difficulties for Chinese spacecraft designers.

INFOGRAPHIC: What do we know about Mars?

One of the biggest differences between the moon and Mars is that the moon has no atmosphere while Mars has a thin atmosphere. Landing on the moon requires no aerodynamic shape or parachute. The engineers want to use the atmosphere of Mars to help slow the spacecraft, but have only a limited understanding of the unstable atmosphere, Geng said.

The difference in gravity also calls for differences in the design of Mars and lunar rovers. The solar panels of the Mars probe are unlike those of lunar probes due to the different light intensity.

This image grab taken from footage from China Central Television shows China's first Mars rover as it is being unveiled in Wenchang, Hainan province, on July 22, 2020. 

The probe's designers are also worried about the sandstorms on Mars, and have tried to minimize the risk of damage by sand and dust.

The average Earth-Moon distance is about 380,000 km while the distance to Mars is up to 400 million km, which is a major challenge for communication and control, Geng said.

"China's Tianwen 1 mission includes an orbiter and a rover, so actually we're sending two probes to Mars together," said Geng.

It's immensely difficult to simulate the environment of Mars, and we conducted many special tests of the parachute of the entry capsule and the rover.

Geng Yan

The designers of the spacecraft had to take into account all aspects of orbiting, landing and roving in one mission.

READ MORE: China-made Mars rover set for upcoming mission

More than 40 Mars missions have been launched since the 1960s, but only about half have succeeded. The success rate for landing is even lower, and only the United States has succeeded in soft landing on Mars.

"We only have a limited understanding of Mars. There are still many uncertainties about the environment and great risks," said Geng.

The design of the aerodynamic shape and the parachute of the Mars probe are quite different from those of the return capsule of a manned spacecraft on Earth, said Geng.

Many key steps are required for the spacecraft to be highly reliable.

The team had a short research and development time and challenges in testing the spacecraft on Earth. "It's immensely difficult to simulate the environment of Mars, and we conducted many special tests of the parachute of the entry capsule and the rover," said Geng.

If China can succeed in orbiting, landing and roving on the red planet in Tianwen 1, it will take on the challenge of collecting and bringing back samples in the next Mars mission, as well as exploring asteroids and the Jovian system, Geng added.


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