Chinese scientists are planning to launch a Mars rover “around 2020,” state media reported yesterday, as the country pours billions into its space program and works to catch up with the US and Europe.
Although the government has not officially announced plans for a Mars mission, officials from the China National Space Administration are lobbying to have it put on the agenda and have begun “preliminary research,” the state-run China Daily reported.
“We plan to conduct the Mars mission around 2020, which will include the probe’s orbiting, landing and roaming,” Peng Tao, a space expert at the China Academy of Space Technology, was quoted by China Daily as saying.
Photo: AFP
“By contrast, other nations will need multiple missions to achieve those three steps,” he said.
The statements came less than a week after prototypes for the Mars rover were debuted at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition.
China’s recent space efforts have been focused on exploring the moon. The nation’s first lunar rover — the Yutu, or “Jade Rabbit” — was launched late last year, but it has since been beset by mechanical troubles.
The planned Mars rover will be bigger than the Yutu to deal with the harsher terrain, the China Daily quoted space officials as saying.
Scientists are now focused on sending a manned mission to the moon and returning samples safely back to Earth.
The US has landed two rovers on Mars and India successfully put a satellite into orbit around the Red Planet in September. The former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency have also sent missions to Mars.
China’s first attempt to send a satellite into Mars orbit foundered in 2011, when the Russian rocket carrying the payload failed to make it out of the Earth’s orbit.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS