Last week China launched a probe to Mars. It is expected to reach the fourth planet from the sun by February next year.
The mission, called Tianwen-1 (meaning ‘questions to heaven’), will deploy a satellite as well as landing a rover on the surface.
This is the second attempt that China has made to explore the Red Planet, after a failed mission in 2011.
Business Insider quoted Wan Weixang, the mission’s chief engineer as saying: ‘The main task of Tianwen-1 is to perform a global and extensive survey of the entire planet using the orbiter, and to send the rover to surface locations of scientific interests to conduct detailed investigations with high accuracy and resolution.’ He died in May.
The United Arab Emirates also launched a probe to Mars earlier this month, and the United States is planning on launching a Martian mission on 30 July.
Every two years the distance between Earth and Mars is smaller than it normally is, which is currently the case, with the result that various space agencies are taking advantage of this, leading to the relative glut in Martian exploration missions.
The Chinese mission is also a show of strength from Beijing, flexing its technological muscle for the rest of the world to see.
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