China moves rocket in place to launch rover in first mission to Mars next week

Name: Chinese lunar rover ventures into challenging environment on moon’s far side
Uploaded: 2020-07-17T07:41:26.000Z
Duration: 1 min 37 s
Description: Chinese lunar rover ventures into challenging environment on moon’s far side

It’s one of three upcoming missions, with the US and UAE both sending their own spacecraft to the red planet

They will seek signs of ancient microscopic life and scout out Mars for future astronauts

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China’s Mars rover will be launched on July 23 from its southern island province of Hainan. Photo: Weibo

Associated Press

Published: 3:41pm, 17 Jul 2020Updated: 10:38pm, 17 Jul 2020

China has moved a rocket into position to launch a rover to Mars next week in one of three upcoming missions to the red planet, with one from the US and another from the United Arab Emirates.

The Long March-5 carrier rocket is China’s heaviest-lift launch vehicle and has been launched experimentally three times, but never with a payload. Dubbed Tianwen-1, China’s first-ever mission to Mars aims to land a rover to gather scientific data.

The rocket is due to blast off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan on or around July 23, according to state media reports on Friday that quoted the China National Space Administration.

The mission is one of the most ambitious yet for China’s space programme, which has advanced rapidly since launching its first crewed mission in 2003. Since then, it has sent astronauts to an experimental space station, begun work on a larger, more permanent facility and landed a probe on the less-explored far side of the moon.

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Chinese lunar rover ventures into challenging environment on moon’s far side

This summer’s trio of missions is the most sweeping effort yet to seek signs of ancient microscopic life while scouting out Mars for future astronauts.

The timelines for such missions are daunting and the countries involved are striving to take best advantage of a one-month window in which Mars and Earth are in ideal alignment on the same side of the sun, minimising travel time and fuel use. Such a window opens only once every 26 months.

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