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“The entry into orbit was a success … making it our country’s first artificial satellite of Mars,” the agency said.
The mission is daring even for a space program that has accumulated a steady stream of achievements and brought prestige to the ruling Communist Party in China.
If all goes according to plan, the rover will separate from the spacecraft in a few months and land safely on Mars, making China the second country to achieve such a feat. The rover, a solar-powered vehicle the size of a golf cart, will collect data on groundwater and search for evidence that the planet may have once harbored microscopic life.
Tianwen, the title of an ancient poem, means “Quest for Heavenly Truth.”
Landing a spaceship on Mars is notoriously difficult. Crashed Russian and European spaceships litter the landscape with a failing US lander. A dozen orbiters missed the mark. In 2011, a Chinese orbiter bound for Mars that was part of a Russian mission did not leave Earth orbit.
Only the United States has successfully landed on Mars – eight times, starting with two Viking missions in the 1970s. An American lander and rover are in service today.
China’s attempt will involve a parachute, rocket fire and airbags. Its proposed landing site is a vast rocky plain called Utopia Planitia, where the American Viking 2 lander landed in 1976.
Before the arrival this week of the Chinese spacecraft and the UAE orbiter, six other spacecraft were already operating around Mars: three Americans, two Europeans and one Indian.
The last three missions were launched in July to take advantage of the close alignment between Earth and Mars that only occurs once every two years.
A NASA rover called Perseverance is aiming for a landing on February 18. He will also be looking for signs of ancient microscopic life, collecting rocks that will be returned to Earth in about a decade.
China’s secret and military space program has accumulated a series of achievements. In December, it brought moon rocks back to Earth for the first time since the 1970s. China was also the first country to land a spacecraft on the unexplored other side of the moon in 2019.
China is also building a permanent space station and planning a manned lunar mission and a possible permanent moon research base, although no date has yet been proposed.
While most contacts with NASA are blocked by Congress and China does not participate in the International Space Station, it is increasingly cooperating with the European Space Agency and countries like Argentina, France and Austria. Very early on, China cooperated with the Soviet Union and then Russia.
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