Friday 17 International Friday, July 24, 2020 China launches Mars probe in space race with America Big powers take their rivalry into deep space WENCHANG: China launched a rover to Mars yesterday, a jour- ney coinciding with a similar US mission as the powers take their rivalry into deep space. The two countries are taking advantage of a period when Earth and Mars are favorably aligned for a short journey, with the US spacecraft due to lift off on July 30. The Chinese mission is named Tianwen-1 (“Questions to Heaven”) - a nod to a classical poem that has verses about the cosmos. Engineers and other employees cheered at the launch site on the southern island of Hainan as it lifted off into blue sky aboard a Long March 5 - China’s biggest space rocket. Site commander Zhang Xueyu declared the mission a success on state broadcaster CCTV. The five-ton Tianwen-1 is expected to arrive in February 2021 after a seven-month, 55-million-kilometre voyage. The mission in- cludes a Mars orbiter, a lander and a rover that will study the planet’s soil. “As a first try for China, I don’t expect it to do any- thing significant beyond what the US has already done,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. It is a crowded field. The United Arab Emirates launched a probe on Monday that will orbit Mars once it reaches the Red Planet. But the race to watch is between the United States and China, which has worked furiously to try and match Washington’s su- premacy in space. NASA, the American space agency, has already WENCHANG: A Long March-5 rocket, carrying an orbiter, lander and rover as part of the Tianwen-1 mission to Mars, lifts off from the Wenchang Space sent four rovers to Mars since the late 1990s. The next one, Per- Launch Centre in southern China’s Hainan Province yesterday. —AFP severance, is an SUV-sized vehicle that will look for signs of an- cient microbial life, and gather rock and soil samples with the goal of bringing them back to Earth on another mission in 2031. Tian- in the past decade, sending a human into space in 2003. be much fainter,” he added, noting that there is a greater risk of wen-1 is “broadly comparable to Viking in its scope and ambition”, The Asian powerhouse has laid the groundwork to assemble failure. China has upgraded its monitoring stations in the far- said McDowell, referring to NASA’s Mars landing missions in a space station by 2022 and gain a permanent foothold in Earth western Xinjiang region and northeastern Heilongjiang province 1975-1976. orbit. China has already sent two rovers to the Moon. With the to meet the Mars mission requirements, state news agency Xin- second, China became the first country to make a successful soft hua reported last week. Catching up landing on the far side. The Moon missions gave China experi- The majority of the dozens of missions sent by the US, Russia, After watching the United States and the Soviet Union lead the ence in operating spacecraft beyond Earth orbit, but Mars is an- Europe, Japan and India to Mars since 1960 ended in failure. Tian- way during the Cold War, China has poured billions of dollars into other story. wen-1 is not China’s first attempt to go to Mars. A previous mis- its military-led space program. “China joining (the Mars race) will The much greater distance means “a bigger light travel time, sion with Russia in 2011 ended prematurely as the launch failed. change the situation dominated by the US for half a century,” said so you have to do things more slowly as the radio signal round Now, Beijing is trying on its own. “As long as (Tianwen) safely Chen Lan, an independent analyst at GoTaikonauts.com, which trip time is large,” said McDowell. It also means “you need a lands on the Martian surface and sends back the first image, the specializes in China’s space program. China has made huge strides more sensitive ground station on Earth because the signals will mission will... be a big success,” Chen said. —AFP

‘Questions to Heaven’ from those of other countries: develop the ca- Yutu rovers are good practice in many ways From the Moon to China’s Mars probe lifted off on July 23 from pability, explore the universe... and finally, cre- for a Martian rover. The terrain is broadly sim- the southern island of Hainan. The mission was ate political influence and national prestige,” ilar,” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the dubbed Tianwen-1 (“Questions to Heaven”) in said Chen Lan, an independent analyst at Go- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Mars: China’s long a nod to a classical Chinese poem that has Taikonauts.com, which specializes in news said. But the distance from Earth means com- verses about the cosmos. The probe aims to go about China’s space program. munication will be slower, McDowell said, march in space into Martian orbit, land on the planet and re- adding that the risk of problems increases with lease a small rover to conduct research on its Six-wheeled rover such a long trip. surface. The craft will travel at least 55 million The rover, weighing 240 kilograms, has six BEIJING: China launched a rover to Mars kilometers to reach its destination. It will arrive wheels and four solar panels, Chinese state Space race yesterday, another milestone for its space seven months after launch, in February, accord- media reported. The rover will roam Mars for China has poured billions of dollars into its program after putting humans into orbit and ing to an official. three months, according to Sun Zezhou, chief en- space program to catch up with the US, Russia landing a probe on the Moon. It is among a gineer of the probe. The machine is supposed to and Europe. In 2003, it became the third nation- trio of nations, along with the United Arab Without Russia this time analyze the planet’s soil and atmosphere, take after the US and Russia-to send a human into Emirates and the United States, launching It is not China’s first attempt to go to Mars. photos, chart maps and look for signs of past life. space. It has launched a slew of satellites into missions to the Red Planet this month, taking A previous mission with Russia in 2011 failed orbit, completing a constellation in June to set advantage of a period when Mars and Earth because the Russian launcher was unable to get Jade Rabbits up its own navigation system, Beidou, to rival the are favorably aligned. Beijing’s space program the craft into a transfer orbit to slingshot to- China sent two rovers to the Moon, Jade US GPS system. The Asian powerhouse plans to has made huge strides in recent years as it wards the Red Planet. The hardware partially Rabbit One and Two (Yutu in Chinese), in 2013 assemble a space station by 2022 in Earth orbit. tries to catch up with the United States and disintegrated as it later crashed back to Earth. and 2019. The second rover made a historic And China is aiming even higher, hoping to be- Russia. Here are five things to know about the Following that failure, Beijing decided to try soft landing on the far side of the Moon, mak- come only the second nation to send humans to program: again on its own. “Its purposes are not different ing China the first country to do so. “The lunar the Moon a decade from now. — AFP