China launched its new mission to Mars a few hours ago, more ambitious than the previous ones. The Long-5 rocket took off at 12:40 pm from Hainan Island, south of China. Hundreds followed the launch on the beach on the other side of the cabin.
"This launch is hope, strengthLi Dapeng, co-founder of the Mars Society's Chinese branch, said.
The commander of the launch Zhang Xueyu after 45 minutes of flight, from the control room announced that he could applaud: "The Mars rover has accurately entered its programmed orbit". The launch was followed live by the state broadcaster CCTV.
The Chinese space agency said the rocket carried the probe for 36 minutes before successfully positioning it on the loop path that will take it beyond Earth's orbit and eventually into Mars' more distant orbit around the sun.
Liu Tongjie, spokesman for the mission, said at a press conference that the launch constitutes a key point for China's ambitions as it is now heading for deeper space ”. He also said that China's goal is not to compete with other countries, but to peacefully explore the universe.
This week the Chinese one is the second flight to Mars. The United Arab Emirates launched a rocket from Japan on Monday. The U.S. will launch next week from Cape Canaveral, Perseverance, the most sophisticated Mars rover ever.
The Chinese spacecraft will take seven months to reach Mars. If all goes well, the rover called Tianwen-1 will search for underground water, if any, as well as evidence of a possible ancient life.
This is not China's first attempt to go to Mars. In 2011, a launch along with the Russians was missed when the spaceship failed to exit Earth's orbit after being launched from Kazakhstan, eventually burning into the atmosphere.
China's space program has developed rapidly in recent decades. Yang liwei became the first Chinese astronaut in 2003 and last year, Chang'e-4 became the first spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon.
Conquering Mars would put China in an elite club
"There's a lot of prestige about this launch," said Dean Cheng, a Chinese aerospace program expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
The launch was "a test of courage," said Dr. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The challenge now is that the probe "continues to function on Mars after landing". Landing on Mars is notoriously difficult. The US alone successfully landed a spacecraft on Martian soil, made eight attempts before succeeding since 1976. NASA's InSight and Curiosity rovers still operate today. Six other spacecraft are exploring Mars from orbit: three Americans, two Europeans, and one from India.
Unlike the other two Mars missions that will be launched this month, China has checked all the information on the program launched today, so much so that the United States has held back cooperation between NASA and the Chinese space program.
In an article published earlier this month in Nature Astronomy, mission chief engineer Wan Weixing said Tianwen-1 would slip into orbit around Mars in February and seek a landing on Utopia Planitia, a plain where NASA has detected possible evidence of underground ice. Wan died in May of cancer.
The landing would have been attempted in April or May, according to the article. If all goes well, the 240 kg (530 lb) rover the size of a solar-powered golf cart is expected to run for about three months.
There is uncertainty after landing on Mars, Liu Tongjie said. "For example, a sandstorm could change its business because it would have problems intercepting solar energy."
Although small compared to the US unit of 1.025 kilograms (2.260 lbs) it is almost twice the size of the two rovers that China sent to the moon in 2013 and 2019.
As China joins the United States, Russia and Europe in creating a satellite-based global navigation system, experts say it is not trying to overcome the US advantage in space exploration but is trying not to losing ground with Japan and India to establish itself as Asia's space power.