China has made known what it intends to do in space with the announcement that it has finalized the development of its Mars rover. The probe has an expedition planned to take place next year. The vehicle’s primary mission is to discover signs of alien life on the Red Planet, but the rover will also have to find out whether the planet can be terraformed, to make it entirely livable for humans.
While on its mission, China’s Mars rover probe will allegedly collect atmospheric, topographic, geological, and magnetic samples. That comes as part of viability research about future mission s and perhaps even settlement on to the planet.
The launch is set to happen when the planet has its closest fly-by, which occurs every 26 months and lasts for about a month. Taking into consideration the 10-minute delay in communications traveling from Earth to Mars, the rover will have to make its own landing decisions during the also known ‘seven minutes of terror’ as it penetrates the Martian atmosphere.
China’s Mars rover is complete, and its launch would take place on August 2020
Until now, only 19 of the 45 human expeditions to Mars have been fruitful, most of which were orbital or fly-by. Chinese scientists will also have to address the constant challenge postured by the Red Planet’s many terrible dust storms, which can impact with the power of a force-12 typhoon on Earth.
Pang Zhihao, an expert in space exploration technology in Beijing, said that even though China’s expedition to Mars has started late, the scientists are ready to face the provocations the rover might encounter. Sun Zezhou, chief designer of China’s Chang’ e-4 lunar probe stated that the development of the Mars probe was very troublesome, but added that the process is an urge that compels forward technological development.
Chengzheng 5’s launch is expected to happen in July or August 2020 from the Wenchang cosmodrome in Hainan Province. The rocket will carry abroad the rover, and if all goes according to the plan, the probe could send data to Earth as soon as 2021.
Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.