{"id":123,"date":"2020-07-23T23:57:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/?p=123"},"modified":"2020-08-12T00:56:26","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T16:56:26","slug":"china-launches-its-first-unmanned-mission-to-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/china-launches-its-first-unmanned-mission-to-mars.html","title":{"rendered":"China launches its first unmanned mission to Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China successfully launched an unmanned probe to Mars on Thursday in its first independent mission to another planet, in a display of its technological prowess and ambition to join an elite club of space-faring nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s largest carrier rocket, the Long March 5 Y-4, blasted off with the probe at 12:41 p.m. (0441 GMT) from Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, Mars is at its closest to Earth, at a distance of about 55 million km (34 million miles), in a window of about a month that opens once every 26 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The probe is expected to reach Mars in February where it will try to land in Utopia Planitia, a plain in the northern hemisphere, and deploy a rover to explore for 90 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If successful, the Tianwen-1, or \u201cQuestions to Heaven\u201d, the name of a poem written two millennia ago, will make China the first country to orbit, land and deploy a rover in its inaugural mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1960, half of all the 50-plus missions to Mars including flybys had failed, due to technical problems. Only a handful attempted to land on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges multiply for those attempting a landing – from ensuring a precise deceleration of the spacecraft to navigating the planet\u2019s sometimes violent atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe mission must necessarily be challenging, and not be following in the footsteps of others completely,\u201d Liu Tongjie, mission spokesman, told Reuters after the launch in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Long March 5 Y-4 rocket, carrying an unmanned Mars probe of the Tianwen-1 mission, takes off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan Province, China July 23, 2020. REUTERS\/Carlos Garcia Rawlins<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an exploration project, so there will be no 100% assurance of success. If the mission is unsuccessful, or if there are problems, we will continue to push ahead, re-establish the project, and re-commit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China previously made a Mars bid in 2011 with Russia, but the Russian spacecraft carrying the probe failed to exit the Earth\u2019s orbit and disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight spacecraft – American, European and Indian – are currently either orbiting Mars or on its surface, with other missions underway or planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Arab Emirates launched a $200 million mission to Mars on Monday, an orbiter that will study the planet\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source\uff1aReuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s largest carrier rocket, the Long March 5 Y-4, blasted off with the probe at 12:41 p.m. (0441 GMT) from Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}