Posted on 07/23/2020 5:53:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
SHANGHAI— China launched its first mission to Mars on Thursday, aiming to join the short list of nations that have landed a spacecraft on another planet.
The Tianwen-1 blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the island of Hainan at 12:40 p.m. local time aboard the newly developed Long March 5 rocket. It is expected to make the 34-million-mile journey to Mars in seven months, after which it will attempt to slip into orbit around the planet and send a rover to the surface.
If all goes as planned, China will join the U.S. and Russia as the only countries to successfully put a lander or rover on Mars.
And now the spotlight shifts to the U.S.’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which is due to launch its Mars probe in a week’s time.
The version of the Long March 5 used in Thursday’s launch had flown only three times before, including a 2017 failure that became one of the most major setbacks to date for the Chinese space program.
But the latest launch went smoothly, the state news agency Xinhua said. The spacecraft entered Earth orbit as planned before embarking on its journey to Mars.
“Mars! China is coming!” Xinhua said on social media when it announced the launch.
The Tianwen-1 program was named after an ancient series of poems, “Heavenly Questions,” by Qu Yuan, a writer from China’s Warring States period who was revered for his patriotism.
A latecomer to modern space exploration, China has made steady advances since first putting a man into space 17 years ago. The country landed its first rover on the moon in 2013 and became the first country to deploy a rover on the moon’s far side five years later.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Exploring for new locations to build more sweatshops!
China will need all the luck they can get.
It’s very hard to land successfully on Mars.
The space probe is probably so contaminated that it will infect Mars like its a New York nursing home.
Isn’t this why we have a Space Force?
If they don’t run a sterile ship when they launch, they just may find “life” that has stowed away on their little rocket.
They will declare it to be a space port and charge us a docking fee any time we visit.
A new place to make Nike’s.
Hope they are not thinking about settling there. Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.
“They see a new market...”
If Martians have more than two feet, it will be a boom to their shoe industry.
rwood
If they find life, they’ll just eat it.
You win the Internet! Sir Elton is pleased.
COVID19 virus will be the life form China deposits on the Martian surface.
A doctor who spent 12 months on the ISS studied his blood and heart bones and the effects of man in space.
He stated in 100 months human bones would decrease so much that he would almost have no bones left.
So much for Mars camping.
China vs the Saudi’s on Mars. Who will win?
To prevent China from sending something to Mars? Why?
Ecause we are competting for domination of the battle space.
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