China moves rocket in place to launch rover in first mission to Mars next week
- 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
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 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.
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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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China completes lander test for 2020 Mars mission
Each spacecraft will travel more than 480 million km (300 million miles) before reaching Mars next February. In the process, they will loop out beyond Earth’s orbit and sync up with Mars’ more distant orbit around the sun.
The US is sending over a car-sized six-wheeled rover named Perseverance to collect rock samples to be returned to Earth for analysis in about a decade. Its launch date has been set for between July 30 and August 15.
The UAE spacecraft, named Amal, or “Hope” in Arabic, is an orbiter built in partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder and is now scheduled to launch from Japan on Monday. It will be the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.
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Scientists want to know what Mars was like billions of years ago, back when it had water sources that may have supported tiny life forms before turning into the frozen world it is today.
So far, the US has been the only country to successfully put a spacecraft on Mars, doing it eight times. Two Nasa landers are operating there, InSight and Curiosity. Six other spacecraft are exploring the planet from orbit: three US, two European and one from India.
China’s last attempt at a Mars mission in collaboration with Russia ended in failure in 2011. The Chinese space programme’s close military connections and the relative secrecy within which it operates has limited its opportunities for cooperation with those of the US and other countries.