Following a failed joint mission with Russia in 2011, China is eyeing to launch a Mars exploration in 2020 as an independent probe of the Red Planet, a top national political adviser and space scientist says.
The China mission is expected to reach the planet in 2021 after a flight of up to 10 months, announced Ye Peijian Friday in Beijing during an annual session of the country’s political advisory body.
"Consensus has been reached among policymakers and leading scientists," he said in a China Daily report.
The country’s planned Mars landing will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China’s founding and will occur a decade after the failed joint mission, where the Russian launch vehicle that carried Yinghuo-1 crashed into the Pacific. The United States, India, Russia, and the European Union afterwards stole the march.
The Mars probe is one of the 10 major orders that China’s next-generation heavy lift rocket, called Long March 5, has received. This was revealed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., which serves as the main contractor of its national space missions.
Its structure and size will be similar to but will have distinct differences from Chang’e-3, which is China’s first lunar lander launched in 2013.
Back in November 2015, China also unveiled a model of its orbiter as well as landing rover at the China International Industry Fair held in Shanghai.
Research and preparations are now underway to set the communications between Earth and the Mars rover, and to manage the extreme environments on the destination planet.
Ye as well as other Chinese scientists have been lobbying for an independent Mars exploration project for the last few years now. The Chang’e-3 program’s chief scientist added, too, that the Chinese government has not approved the plan to send its astronauts to the moon.
On the other hand, the Chang’e-5 lunar mission is poised to bring soil from the moon in 2017, while the core module of the anticipated space station will be unveiled in 2020.
Renowned American astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin said in February that humans will successfully reach Mars by 2040 — a “very realistic” plan, although staying on the planet is an altogether different story. He called for international collaboration to make the manned Mars mission happen.
