Hong Kong Polytechnic University signs deal to make camera for China’s 2020 Mars probe
Device for spacecraft in groundbreaking mission to red planet will need to cope with temperatures ranging from minus 70 degrees Celsius to 90 degrees Celsius
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University will play a key role in a groundbreaking Chinese project to send a probe to Mars in 2020 by creating a camera designed to endure extreme temperatures as well as shocks 6,200 times the force of gravity.
Professor Yung Kai-leung, the university’s chair professor of precision engineering, said development of the camera’s technologies would have implications beyond exploring the solar system, from medical robotics to industrial engineering.
“We expect the space project to strengthen our ability in scientific research and in coming up with good designs ... and we also hope to transfer the space technology to civil use,” he said.
In the past decade China has achieved a series of breakthroughs in space exploration, including its first lunar “soft landing” in 2013 with the Chang’e-3 spacecraft and Jade Rabbit rover.
The country is planning to launch a spacecraft to Mars in 2020 with the aim of becoming the first nation to complete an orbital and surface exploration of the red planet in a single mission.