China’s first Mars probe mission to launch in July 2020
While NASA is initiating to send its Mars 2020 rover to investigate the Ares or the red-planet, China also revealed the plan to launch its first Mars mission exploration in July this year. Xinhua quoted in a report by the China Youth Daily saying that the Mars probe of China will begin in July onboard of the Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket.
The newspaper also said that this is the first time China has revealed the launch month of its Mars probe program. As per the report, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) approved that the country will send the exploration to orbit, land and deploy a rover on Mars.
Recently, Xinhua noted that the Long March-5 Y4 rocket completed a 100-second trial for its high thrust hydrogen-oxygen engine. The trial is the last engine examination before the final assembly.
For the year 2020, the Long March-5 rocket of China has various missions due ahead, which includes the Mars exploration launch and the lunar sample arrival. As per the report, a total of 24 high thrust hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine trial will be held this year for these missions.
Earlier in November, China simulated the process of a probe hovering, refrain obstacles and moving down to land on Mars. Xinhua reported that the experiment was administered on a trial ground, which is the largest one in Asia for test landing on an uneven surface, in Huailai county, Hebei province.
The major task for the mission is to safely land on Mars. China’s experiment simulated the gravity of Mars, about one-third of the gravity on Earth, to test the model of the lander.
