National space administration of China announced the first Mars mission and the indicative date for its launch. This writes Space News.
Scheduled for the end of July or beginning of August, the mission consists of several stages: first heavy rocket “chanchzhen-5” will deliver spacecraft to orbit the red planet, and then from this station go down the Rover, which will collect data and search for traces of life.
“Technical details on the mission are few. It is known that the mass of the spacecraft with fuel and equipment will be about five tons,” — the newspaper writes.
China Today is Space Day, marking the 50th anniversary of the launch of China’s first satellite DFH-1. Today the country’s 1st Mars (& interplanetary) mission received a name: Tianwen-1 （天问一号）。 We also got a few glimpses of the orbiter/rover spacecraft: pic.twitter.com/JDPqBSdbX6
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) April 24, 2020
It is planned that the lander with a mass of 240 kg sits in one of the two points on the plain of Utopia. The Rover will install a subsurface radar, a multispectral camera, the spectroscope and the equipment for studies of climate and magnetic field. Scientists say that energy will be enough for three earth months.
The name of the Rover will be chosen later, by open voting.
Earlier, the international team of scientists discovered a new exoplanet with very attractive characteristics. It is located 300 light years from us, orbits in the habitable zone and its size and temperature is very similar to Earth.
