Advertisement
China’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission adding to growing domestic interest in space
- Love affair includes travelling to mock Mars colonies and to watch rockets launch in Hainan, and space-themed television, films and literature
- Tianwen-1 spacecraft’s mission to Mars is the latest milestone in China’s increasingly ambitious space exploration
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
2
Cui Tingting dyed her hair Mars red for the arrival of China’s spacecraft at the planet known in Chinese as the Fire Star.
Advertisement
“This is a great era for space, and the future of mankind lies in the exploration of outer space,” said Cui, director of the China Mars Society, the local chapter of a global advocacy network. She hosted an online party on Wednesday night to wait for the announcement that the Tianwen-1 spacecraft, launched last July, had reached Mars’ orbit.
Video from participants across China showed a replica of Tianwen-1’s robot rover in the home of one society member. One wore a home-made spacesuit; another controlled his robot dog.
“Earth is our mother planet … but for me, Mars is the same,” Cui said.
01:48
China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe goes into orbit around the red planet
China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe goes into orbit around the red planet
China is falling in love with space, inspired by the Communist Party’s increasingly ambitious plans over the past two decades to launch humans into orbit and explore the moon and Mars.
Advertisement
Advertisement