No other planet has captivated our imaginations quite like Mars. While inhospitable now, billions
of years ago, the landscape of this dusty rock was similar to that of Earth, but somewhere
along the way, it became a red wasteland. And scientists don’t exactly know how. With
countless possibilities, it’s no wonder that countries around the world are sending
missions to Mars to uncover what secrets the planet may hold. And one of the most ambitious
missions yet is China’s Tianwen-1. This will be the country’s debut Mars exploration
venture and they’re going big: Tianwen-1, translating to “questions to heaven”,
consists of an orbiter, lander, and rover. And this is one of the reasons why this project
is so ambitious, because executing all three mission components on a first-attempt is a
feat not achieved by any country before. Because, well, it’s hard.
Getting to Mars is a several-month endeavour and once you get there, the planet doesn’t
exactly send a warm welcome. NASA has dubbed the descent to Mars as the “7 minutes of
Terror'' because the Martian atmosphere creates heat to any craft that has its sights set
to land. Only a few missions that have landed on the surface of Mars have been successful
and the majority of them have been from NASA. This may sound like a daunting undertaking
for China, but judging by their track record in the last few years, they’ve been rather
victorious with other projects. In 2013, China joined the exclusive league of countries that
have been able to land on the moon and in 2019, they were able to land on the far side
of the moon with their rover Chang’e 4, which no one else has done. So, this Tianwen-1
mission is full of anticipation. But as much as we want to get into the nitty-gritty
details of this mission, China’s teams are keeping that information to themselves. However,
this is what we know so far. According to a recent paper about the payloads published
July 2020, the Tianwen-1 mission will be packed with 13 scientific instruments, split between
the orbiter and rover. China’s goal is to provide a comprehensive
survey of the planet’s atmosphere, geological structures, and surface environment. Which
includes the ever-exciting search for water and other signs of life. So let’s start
with Tianwen-1’s orbiter. This spacecraft will not only be used as the
vessel for the lander and rover, but it will also be responsible for capturing images and
analysing the surface of Mars. It's equipped with a medium-resolution camera, subsurface
radar, mineralogy spectrometer, neutral and energetic particle analyzers and a magnetometer.
There's also a high-resolution camera on board that is comparable to HiRise, a camera
on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance orbiter that’s helped scientists study objects about a meter
in size on the planet’s surface in unprecedented detail. Overall, the orbiter will use these
instruments to study morphology, geological structure, soil characteristics, water-ice
distribution, material composition, the ionosphere, and finally Mars' magnetic field. This little
craft is busy. But it won’t be alone in its exploration.
Once the orbiter reaches Mars, it will release the lander and rover system. Like we’ve
mentioned, the lander needs protection and stabilization from the heat generated from
descent. So we don't have all the details yet, but from what we've seen in past Mars
missions, the lander will need to decelerate from its release in the Martian atmosphere
to a safe landing on the surface. And the exciting part is when the lander touches the
ground, it will release a 240 kilogram, solar-powered rover.
The possible landing sites for the rover are two areas north of the equator on the plains
of Utopia Planitia. The two areas are low-lying regions which reportedly are easier for first
time Mars explorers to land on, and either one provides a good source of deposits to
understand the red planet’s evolution. Which is great news for the rover’s ground-penetrating
radar, since it will be one of the first of its kind used on Martian soil.
It’ll reveal the local geology, ice, and sediment distribution. Along with the radar,
the rover is packed with Multispectral Camera, Terrain Camera, Mars Surface Composition Detector,
Mars Magnetic Field Detector, and Mars Meteorology Monitor. All the information gathered will
be sent back to the hard-working orbiter which will be used as a communications relay for
the team back on Earth. So there we have it. And this is just the
first part of China’s long-term plan to bring back samples from Mars by 2030. You
don’t want to miss another possible world breaking feat from this space agency, so lookout
for China's Long March 5 rocket expected to launch at the end of July 2020, probably carrying
the most ambitious Mars mission yet. Want to know more about Mars exploration missions?
Check out our Countdown to Launch playlist here and make sure to subscribe for all your
rocket launch news. If there are other missions you’d like us to cover, let us know down
in the comments below. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time on Seeker.