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Stephen Chen

Reuters

China on Thursday successfully completed a lander test in northern Hebei province ahead of an unmanned exploration mission to Mars next year.
The refrigerator-sized craft was lowered on 36 cables from a crane to simulate gravity on the red planet, which is about a third of that found on Earth. It used on-board jets to alter its downward course, hovered above rock piles and found a safe place to land, in a demonstration of its ability to avoid obstacles.
Speaking ahead of the test, Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said the country was on track to launch the mission in 2020, with July being a likely launch date.
“This is the debut of China’s Mars exploration mission,” the administration said in a statement.




Zhang said the goal of the mission was to “conduct a comprehensive exploration of Mars and make detailed inspections of key areas”.
An as yet unnamed spacecraft would deliver a rover to the Martian surface, he said.

“The development work is progressing smoothly.”
Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect of the Mars exploration programme, said the journey through space would take about seven months, while the landing would take seven minutes.
The test was conducted at a sprawling test site in Huailai, northwest of Beijing and witnessed by invited guests from 19 countries, including the ambassadors of France, Italy and Brazil.

China’s first attempt to reach Mars flopped in 2012, when Russia’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft carrying China’s Yinghuo 1 probe failed to get beyond Earth’s orbit and eventually broke up over the Pacific Ocean.
Four years later, Beijing opted to launch its own Mars programme and set up multiple research and testing facilities. These included a self-sustaining facility in Beijing to see how humans would cope with prolonged stays in a space station and a remote site in the Gobi desert that simulated the Martian landscape.
Onwards to Mars for China’s deep space explorers
China is not the only country planning to go to Mars next summer. Nasa’s Mars 2020 is set to lift off on July 17, while the Rosalind Franklin, developed by the European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation is expected to follow soon after. Both missions are scheduled to take about six months to reach the red planet.
Also next year, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope Mars Mission – launched by a Japanese H-IIA rocket – will set off for Mars in the hope of getting there in time to mark the UAE’s 50th anniversary in 2021.




While China has not announced any clear plans to cooperate with international partners on its Mars missions, Zhang said that “on the basis of equality, mutual benefit, peaceful use and inclusive development” the CNSA was “willing to join hands with space agencies, space science research entities and foreign space science enthusiasts to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the follow-up major aerospace engineering tasks”.
“[We can] share the achievements of aerospace development, jointly promote the development of the aerospace industry, and contribute more wisdom and strength to the promotion of common human destiny, civilisation and social progress,” he said.
China has developed the powerful Long March 5 rocket to transport the probe to Mars. The same rocket is also meant to deliver the Chang’e 5 probe to the moon by the end of this year or early next to bring back samples of lunar rocks.

Chang’e 4 successfully touched down on the far side of the moon in January, a historic first and major achievement for China’s space programme.
China made its first lunar landing in 2013 and expects to complete a modular space station by about 2022, about the time when Nasa is said to start building a new space station laboratory to orbit the moon, as a pit stop for missions to other parts of the solar system.
In 2003, China became the third nation to put a man in space with its own rocket after the former Soviet Union and the United States.
Since then, it has been racing to catch up with Russia and the United States and become a major space power by 2030.


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Science

Mars here we come: China completes lander test for 2020 mission

The lander carries out a hovering-and-obstacle avoidance test in Huailai, Hebei province. Photo: Reuters

Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), is seen before a hovering-and-obstacle avoidance test for China's Mars mission at a test facility in Huailai, Hebei province, China November 14, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

A lander for China's Mars mission is seen after a hovering-and-obstacle avoidance test at a test facility in Huailai, Hebei province, China November 14, 2019. Picture taken through a window. REUTERS/Jason Lee

A lander for China's Mars mission is seen before a hovering-and-obstacle avoidance test at a test facility in Huailai, Hebei province, China November 14, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

China’s Chang’e 4 mission goals accomplished; first panorama photograph of far side of moon revealed

This view of South Pole-Aitken Basin crater from Chang'e 4 is part of the first panorama of the far side of the moon taken. Photo: Xinhua

(190103) -- BEIJING, Jan. 3, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Technicians work at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 3, 2019. China's Chang'e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon Thursday, becoming the first spacecraft soft-landing on the moon's uncharted side never visible from Earth. The probe, comprising a lander and a rover, landed at the preselected landing area on the far side of the moon at 10:26 a.m. Beijing Time (0226 GMT), the China National Space Administration announced. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

(190111) -- BEIJING, Jan. 11, 2019 (Xinhua) -- The China National Space Administration on Jan. 11, 2019 releases the 360-degree panoramic photos taken by a camera installed on China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe (azimuthal projection). China's Chang'e-4 probe took panoramic photos on the lunar surface after it successfully made the first ever soft-landing on the far side of the moon. (Xinhua/China National Space Administration)

China’s Chang’e 4 lunar probe sends first photo of far side of the moon after historic soft landing

The first close-up picture of the dark side of the moon, taken by Chang’e 4 after its historic soft landing. Photo: Xinhua

(190103) -- BEIJING, Jan. 3, 2019 (Xinhua) -- A simulated landing process of Chang'e-4 lunar probe is seen through the monitor at Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 3, 2019. China's Chang'e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon Thursday, becoming the first spacecraft soft-landing on the moon's uncharted side never visible from Earth. The probe, comprising a lander and a rover, landed at the preselected landing area on the far side of the moon at 10:26 a.m. Beijing Time (0226 GMT), the China National Space Administration announced. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

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China’s Chang’e 4 lunar spacecraft successfully touched down on the moon’s far side, which has never been explored. The lunar lander and rover spacecraft, which entered an elliptical lunar orbit Sunday morning, soft-landed near the moon’s south pole at 10.26am Hong Kong time. 03JAN19. Xinhua

(190103) -- BEIJING, Jan. 3, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Technicians celebrate after the landing of Chang'e-4 lunar probe, at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 3, 2019. China's Chang'e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon Thursday, becoming the first spacecraft soft-landing on the moon's uncharted side never visible from Earth. The probe, comprising a lander and a rover, landed at the preselected landing area on the far side of the moon at 10:26 a.m. Beijing Time (0226 GMT), the China National Space Administration announced. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

Onwards to Mars for China’s deep space explorers after Chang’e 4 moon mission success

China’s first attempt to reach Mars failed in 2012, when Russia’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft carrying China’s Yinghuo 1 probe failed to get beyond Earth’s orbit and eventually broke up over the Pacific Ocean. Photo: Shutterstock/NASA

(190112) -- BEIJING, Jan. 12, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken by the rover Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) on Jan. 11, 2019 shows the lander of the Chang'e-4 probe. China announced Friday that the Chang'e-4 mission, which realized the first-ever soft-landing on the far side of the moon, was a complete success. With the assistance of the relay satellite Queqiao (Magpie Bridge), the rover Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) and the lander of the Chang'e-4 probe took photos of each other. (Xinhua/China National Space Administration)

Wu Yanhua, vice administrator of the China National Space Administration and deputy chief commander of the China Lunar Exploration Programme, speaks at a press conference about China's Chang'e-4 moon probe in Beijing on January 14, 2019. - The Chang'e-4 probe made the world's first soft landing on the moon's "dark side" on January 3, a major step in China's ambitions to become a space superpower. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP)

News

China


Module successfully hovers, avoids obstacles at test site in northern China
Programme on track to begin seven-month journey to red planet next year, head of space administration says



Module successfully hovers, avoids obstacles at test site in northern China.


Space

China's space programme

Mars here we come: China completes lander test for 2020 mission

Module successfully hovers, avoids obstacles at test site in northern China Programme on track to begin seven-month journey to red planet next year, head of space administration says

Module successfully hovers, avoids obstacles at test site in northern China

Programme on track to begin seven-month journey to red planet next year, head of space administration says