China successfully launches 1st Mars probe

Beijing: China successfully launched its first Mars probe, named Tianwen-1, via a Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket from Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China’s Hainan Province into planned orbit on Thursday. The move heralds a new era in China’s deep-space exploration, which has steadily progressed beyond moon probes to interplanetary missions, mission commanders and developers said.

After a flight of around 2,000 seconds, the probe entered the planned Earth-Mars transfer orbit, officially embarking on its journey to the Red Planet, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA)on Thursday.

China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe is expected to reach Mars’ gravity field in February 2021, about seven months after the launch. If it succeeds, Tianwen-1 will be the first Mars expedition to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission in humanity’s history.

According to the CNSA, the project is set to achieve a series of technological advances, including Mars orbit insertion, long-term automatic probe management, long distance communication and Mars surface roving capabilities.

The interplanetary mission will also mark China’s establishment of a complete deep-space exploration project system, covering design, production, flight mission and scientific research.

The mission also involves international cooperation, as the European Space Agency and Argentina will participate by taking part in spacecraft monitoring and controlling, the Global Times has learned from the CNSA.

Moreover, China is also working with countries including France and Austria on payload scaling and data analysis for the mission.

Source: Global Times