China's Tianwen-1 mission to Mars, 2021

[editor]

It's a busy time around Mars this month!

Tianwen-1 is China's first independent interplanetary mission, expected to complete its six-month journey to Mars on Feb. 10, 2021. The probe, a combination orbiter, lander and rover, launched from Earth aboard a Long March 5 rocket on July 23, 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Having traveled 292 million miles (470 million kilometers) from Earth, Tianwen-1 will enter orbit around the Red Planet on Feb. 10. The Tianwen-1 rover will attempt to land on the Red Planet in May.

Tianwen-1: China's first Mars mission

An exciting addition to the fleet exploring the Red Planet.

www.space.com

A giant antenna constructed in north China is now ready to support the Tianwen-1 Mars mission and future deep space endeavors.

With China's first interplanetary mission, Tianwen-1, about to reach Mars, the newly constructed, 230-foot (70 meters) diameter dish antenna in the city of Tianjin has been tested and is ready to receive data from the spacecraft.

Tianwen-1 is due to enter Mars orbit on Wednesday (Feb. 10) and begin its science and imaging observations shortly after. However, getting this valuable information back to Earth from up to 250 million miles away deep space brings its own challenges.

Huge antenna ready to support China's Tianwen-1 Mars mission

The giant ground station on Earth is standing by as the Tianwen-1 spacecraft nears Mars.

www.space.com

 

[editor]

It's successfully entered orbit around Red Planet, which is no mean feat.

he nation's first fully homegrown Mars mission, Tianwen-1, arrived in orbit around the Red Planet today (Feb. 10), according to Chinese media reports.

The milestone makes China the sixth entity to get a probe to Mars, joining the United States, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency, India and the United Arab Emirates, whose Hope orbiter made it to the Red Planet just yesterday (Feb. 9).

And today's achievement sets the stage for something even more epic a few months from now — the touchdown of Tianwen-1's lander-rover pair on a large plain in Mars' northern hemisphere called Utopia Planitia, which is expected to take place this May. (China doesn't typically publicize details of its space missions in advance, so we don't know for sure exactly when that landing will occur.)

China's first Mars mission, Tianwen-1, successfully enters orbit around Red Planet

China has joined the ranks of the Mars-exploring nations.

www.space.com

Impressively:

Tianwen-1 will be just China's opening act at Mars, if all goes according to plan: The nation aims to haul pristine samples of Martian material back to Earth by 2030, where they can be examined in detail for potential signs of life and clues about Mars' long-ago transition from a relatively warm and wet planet to the cold desert world it is today.

 

[weltweit]

Orbiter lander and rover is ambitious, I hope they succeed.

 

[Pickman's model]

Red China has finally made it to the red planet

 

[editor]

I don't think we've ever seen video like this of a spacecraft approaching Mars

 

[TopCat]

Impressive footage.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Is there any indication of any cooperation between the US and China on space exploration as there has now been between the US and Russia for decades?

 

[Signal 11]

No. China exclusion policy of NASA - Wikipedia

 

[Crispy]

The rover is landing tonight

 

[ska invita]

Is there any indication of any cooperation between the US and China on space exploration as there has now been between the US and Russia for decades?

also a post on this question here:

New Space (Arms) Race Watch

there is a mad, dated, biased, but oddly engrossing novel " the war in 2020" written by an ex US army high ranker that deals with some of the issues in this thread. pick it up in a charity shop if you see it and have nothing better to do .

www.urban75.net

 

[2hats]

Red rover on red planet. Imagery arriving soon.

 

[editor]

An incredible achievement!

 

[weltweit]

I don't believe that video in the Twitter post how did they get the camera down on the surface before the Lander?

 

[weltweit]

Anyhow if I have a rover on the surface let it and the American one do battle!

 

[editor]

I don't want to go all SpockJazzzz but where's the surface pics?

 

[2hats]

The orbiter appears to have repositioned into a new orbit earlier today, possibly to improve the comms window, so perhaps images will follow.

 

[Crispy]

I don't want to go all SpockJazzzz but where's the surface pics?

View attachment 268831

NASA already has three Mars orbiters, all ready to relay signals as soon as the rover lands. The Tianwen orbiter had to put itself in a suitable orbit for dropping off the lander, and now has to make some orbit changes to get into a new orbit that regularly crosses the landing area. The lander itself only has 16 bps (yep, sixteen bits per second) data rate direct to earth, so we're just waiting on the orbiter.

There will probably be some typical Chinese secrecy/bureacracy going on too, but there are no signs of disaster or foul play.

 

[Signal 11]

 

[tony.c]

China has released more pics from their Zhurong rover on Mars.

China's Zhurong Mars rover takes a selfie

China releases a batch of new colour pictures from its robot on the Red Planet.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Signal 11]

There's video of it driving away from the camera here (can't get it to embed just the one tweet).

 

[editor]

With sound!

 

[editor]

More

 

[editor]

It's visited its parachute and backshell

China's Mars rover Zhurong just found its parachute and backshell (video)

China's Zhurong Mars rover has given us nice, up-close looks at some of the hardware that helped it land safely on the Red Planet two months ago.

www.space.com

 

[bcuster]

 

[weltweit]

Barren. Not even a single blade of grass.

 

[gosub]

China’s Mars rover finds hints of catastrophic floods

Radar images reveal clues to the history of a largely unexplored region.

www.nature.com