China’s Tianwen-1 Probe Captures Memorable Footage of the Red Planet During Approach

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The China National Space Administration is eager to show that not only NASA, SpaceX, and ESA exist when it comes to space exploration. Tianwen-1 is the latest attempt of China to study Mars, and the probe consists of an orbiter, a deployable camera, and a lander and rover. 

Tianwen-1 made a close approach to the Red Planet, and China released relevant footage:

Tianwen 1 was launched towards the Red Planet on July 23, 2020, from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site. A Long March 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle was attached to the probe, and the planetary orbit was reached on February 10 2021.

The sixth country that orbits Mars

China became the sixth country that orbits the Red Planet, while the other two countries reached Mars in early 2021: UAE and the USA.

While humanity hopes to arrive on Mars in the next several years, scientists are trying to figure out ways of making such a journey as fast as possible. One of those scientists is Fatima Ebrahimi, an Iranian-American physicist from the Department of Energy (DoE). As we’ve written in a previous article, Ebrahimi proposes an idea to send people to Mars 10 times faster than by usual methods.

Nuclear fusion rocket thrusting with magnetic fields

Ebrahimi believes that a nuclear fusion rocket can make thrust by using magnetic fields, as the outcome will be to send people to Mars 10 times faster than by known methods. However, the concept is already at play in nuclear fusion reactors, which means that there’s enough hope.

DoE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) wrote:

The device would apply magnetic fields to cause particles of plasma, electrically charged gas also known as the fourth state of matter, to shoot out the back of a rocket and, because of the conservation of momentum, propel the craft forward.

 

Tiesha loves to share her passion for everything that’s beautiful in this world. Apart from writing on her beauty blog and running her own beauty channel on Youtube, she also enjoys traveling and photography. Tiesha covers various stories on the website.