For more than so years countries have competed to go where no one else has gone before. The nation that leaps ahead of the rest in the great space race gets the bragging right among other things.
China might have joined nations like the US and the Soviets in the game but it has planned to change that as part of its 13th five-year plan that singled out its space exploration.
Two years after a man last landed a probe on planet Mars, both China and the US are planning to launch a mission to the red planet as early as this month, a move that will set up a new platform for their growing rivalry.
Both probed are expected to reach Mars by February 2021.
The objective of the resolution is to answer the questions about the potential for life on Mars, including seeking for evidence of microbial life and looking for signs of habitable conditions in the planet’s ancient past.
If the mission is successful, it will be the seventh probe NASA has landed on Mars as well as the fourth rover. The curiosity which went to the red planet back in 2012 is still sending back data about the Martian surface.
The scientific team behind Tainwen-1 in a paper last week said the probe is going to orbit, land and release a rover all on the very first try, and coordinate observations with an orbiter. No planetary missions have ever been implemented in this way.
On the contrary, NASA sent a lot of orbiters to Mars before even attempting to land. According to them, pulling off the landing is a far more difficult task.
The China team said if their mission is successful, it would signify a major technical breakthrough.
Scientists working for both NASA and China have in the past enjoyed a collegiate relationship. They have worked together on the International Space Station and even congratulated one another on successful missions.
But for all the insistence of those involved to the contrary, the space missions are inescapably political.
The video (Courtesy of CNN) showing China landing in the far side of the moon
Space has been singled out by the Chinese government in her 13th Five Year Plan as a research priority more so the deep space exploration and in-orbit craft. And with the mission to Mars, China is also planning to launch a permanent space station by 2022 as well as planning to send a manned probe to the moon by 2030s.
This program is counting on the finding s from Beijing’s recent missions to the moon especially the Yutu rovers, the first of which had to abandon its mission half wat due to a breakdown. Yutu-2 landed on the far side of the Moon last year and had a huge success.
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China came late into the space race but has made incredible strides in the recent decades, outpacing NASA, at least in terma of bragging right, if not scientifically.
Since 1972 all space explorations have been carried out by robots not only because they are cheaper but also because they are far longer-lasting and more durable. No country is willing to have its first astronaut die on another planet.
But that hasn’t stopped world leaders about speculating about a manned mission to Mars. US President Donald Trump authorized NASA to lead an innovative space exploration program to send American astronauts back to the moon and later to Mars.
