BEIJING (AP) – A Chinese spacecraft went into orbit around Mars on Wednesday on an expedition to land a rover on the surface and investigate the signs of ancient life, authorities announced in a major step in the most ambitious deep space mission of the country.
The arrival of Tianwen-1 after a journey of seven months and almost 300 million miles (475 million kilometers) is part of an unusual explosion of activity on Mars: a UAE spacecraft oscillated on Tuesday in the orbit of the red planet , and a US rover is due to arrive next week.
The Chinese space agency said the combination of the five-ton orbiter and rover launched its engine to reduce speed, allowing it to be captured by the gravity of Mars.
“The entry into orbit was successful … becoming the first artificial satellite of the Sea in our country,” the agency announced.
The mission is bold even for a space program that has accumulated a steady stream of achievements and brought prestige to the Chinese Communist Party.
If all goes as planned, the rover will separate from the spacecraft in a few months and will safely reach Mars, making China only the second nation to accomplish such a feat. The rover, a solar-powered vehicle the size of a golf cart, will collect groundwater data and look for evidence that the planet could once have harbored microscopic life.
Tianwen, the title of an ancient poem, means “The Search for Heavenly Truth.”
The landing of a spacecraft on Mars is notoriously difficult. Crushed Russian and European spaceships throw the landscape along with a failed American lander. About a dozen orbiters missed the sign. In 2011, a Chinese orbiter related to Mars that was part of a Russian mission did not leave Earth’s orbit.
Only the United States has successfully reached Mars – eight times, starting with two Viking missions in the 1970s. An American lander and rover are in operation today.
China’s attempt will involve a parachute, rocket fire and airbags. Its proposed landing site is a vast, rocky plain called the Utopia Planitia, where the American lander Viking 2 reached in 1976.
Prior to the week’s arrival of the Chinese spacecraft and the UAE orbiter, six other spacecraft were already operating around Mars: three US, two European and one Indian.
All three recent missions were launched in July to take advantage of the close alignment between Earth and Mars that happens only once every two years.
A NASA rover named Perseverance is aiming for a landing on February 18th. And he will look for signs of ancient microscopic life, collecting rocks that will be returned to Earth in about a decade.
China’s secret space program, linked to the military, has accumulated a number of achievements. In December, it first brought lunar rocks to Earth after the 1970s. China was also the first country to land a spacecraft on the far edge of the moon, little explored, in 2019.
China is also building a permanent space station and is planning a monthly manned mission and a possible permanent lunar research base, although no data have yet been proposed.
While most contacts with NASA are blocked by Congress and China does not participate in the International Space Station, it has increasingly cooperated with the European Space Agency and countries such as Argentina, France and Austria. At first, China cooperated with the Soviet Union and then with Russia.