(Image courtesy of Xinhua.)
According to current timetables, the probe will be launched in 2020 as part of China’s rapid development of its space fairing capabilities.
Though the rover is still unnamed, current plans project the Martian visitor to be larger than the 441lb Yutu rover that landed on the Moon in 2013.
As of this writing, China’s Mars mission will be launched sometime within the July to August window aboard a Long March-5 rocket. The Long March-5 rocket, a new addition to the Chinese arsenal, represents the country’s most advanced heavy launch system, comparable to the United States’ Delta IV Heavy rocket, which was designed to send astronauts to Mars and beyond.
But, back to the rover.
Once on the surface, China’s three-solar paneled, six-wheeled rover will begin a scientific study of the Red Planet. Chinese officials have said that the rover will be equipped with 13 separate scientific instruments including a sub-surface radar and a remote-sensing camera. Further details about the suite of scientific instruments on the rover haven’t been disclosed.
Similar to Yutu, the Martian probe has been designed to collect scientific data from its new home and send those bits back to Earth over three-month period. Fortunately for the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA), Yutu’s abilities to collect and transmit data lasted well beyond its projected lifetime as the crippled, yet functional machine continued to send info for 31 months.
In a bit of foreshadowing, the final message from Yutu’s Weibo account read: “Hi! This could be the last greetings [sic] from me! The moon says it has prepared a long, long dream for me, and I’m wondering what the dream would be like—would I be a mars explorer, or be sent back to Earth?”
Given the track record of the CNSA and NASA at building probes, it appears that the standards being used to engineer space craft are a bit more rigorous than those for most terrestrial products. If only our razors and cars and, well, anything else that you buy lasted several times longer than projected. That kind of world would be worth shunning a one-way Mars trip.
Can engineers get us to Mars by 2027? Follow the link to find out.