China’s Tianwen-1 Mars Mission Has Entered Orbit

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Tianwen-1, whose name means “quest for heavenly truth,” is made up of an orbiter, a lander and a six-wheeled rover carrying scientific instruments, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The CNSA said it will collect important information about the geological structure, atmosphere, environment and soil of Mars and look for any signs of water. The spacecraft is expected to land on the planet’s surface in May or June.

Tianwen-1 makes China the sixth country in history to reach Mars.

Tianwen-1 launched last July, along with two other international missions to Mars: NASA’s Perseverance rover and the United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe.

All three missions were launched at around the same time due to an alignment between Mars and Earth on the same side of the sun, allowing for more efficient travel to the Red Planet.

NASA’s Perseverance rover is scheduled to land on Mars on February 18.

China's Tianwen-1 returns first photo of Mars

So far, the United States and the former Soviet Union are the only two countries to have landed a spacecraft on the surface of Mars. But the European Space Agency and India have already sent spacecraft to enter orbit the planet – and on Tuesday the United Arab Emirates joined their ranks, with its Hope probe that successfully entered orbit.

With Tianwen-1, China is the first nation to attempt to send both an orbiter and a rover on its first mission to Mars. According to the science team behind the mission, the probe will “orbit, land and release a very first-try rover, and coordinate observations with an orbiter.”

In contrast, NASA sent several orbiters to Mars before attempting a landing, because landing is a much more difficult task.

The Chinese rover is expected to stay for three months, in the hope that it can gather important information on the planet.

China’s space ambitions

Wednesday’s news marks the latest success for China’s ambitious space industry, which has transformed rapidly in recent decades.

Although Chinese authorities and state media have hailed Tianwen-1 as the country’s first mission to Mars, this is not entirely true.

China’s first attempt to reach Mars dates back to 2011 with the Yinghuo-1 probe, which was supposed to orbit the Red Planet and study its environmental structure. It was launched from Kazakhstan in tandem with the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission in November of this year.

But the mission failed, with a malfunction that stuck the probe in Earth orbit shortly after launch. In 2012, the spacecraft re-entered Earth atmosphere and fell back to Earth, landing in the Pacific Ocean.

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This was a disappointing blow to the country’s young space program, which has always lagged behind other countries. Beijing did not launch its first manned space flight until 2003, more than 40 years after the realization of NASA.

But that has all changed in recent years.

Under President Xi Jinping, who took office in 2013, China has invested billions of dollars in its space program, put space laboratories and satellites into orbit, and landed three unmanned spaceships on the moon.

The government has made space a national research priority, particularly deep space explorations and spacecraft in orbit. Increasingly, Chinese private companies are also investing in space research and technology.

In addition to the Tianwen-1 Mars mission, Beijing also plans to launch a permanent space station by 2022 and plans to send astronauts to the Moon – possibly in the 2030s.

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