Beijing (AFP)
China announced on Wednesday that it would send a probe and a small remote-controlled robot to Mars in late July, its first mission to the Red Planet.
The country is investing billions of euros in its space program: it launches satellites, plans to send men to the Moon and launched a new spacecraft in May.
"An appropriate date will be chosen (...) during the period between July 20 and 25 for the launch towards Mars of the Tianwen-1 probe," announced the Wenchang space launch center (southern China). .
"We wish the mission every success in advance!" Said the short press release published on the social network WeChat.
It takes about seven months to make the Earth-Mars trip and the Chinese probe will therefore not reach its destination before 2021. The distance is constantly changing but is at least 55 million km.
Called "Tianwen" ("Questions in Heaven"), the Chinese mission has three objectives: to place a probe in Martian orbit, to make it land on the red planet, then to control a robot on the surface to conduct analyzes.
China has already carried out a similar operation on the Moon, where it deposited in 2013 a small remote-controlled "rover" with wheels (baptized "Jade rabbit"), then its successor in January 2019 (on the hidden side of the star lunar, a world first).
The Asian country is not alone in the niche of Martian missions.
The United States, which has already sent four exploratory vehicles to Mars, is due to launch its fifth (called "Perseverance") at the end of July.
The United Arab Emirates will also launch the first Arab probe to the Red Planet later this month from Japan.
On the other hand, the Russian-European mission ExoMars, victim of technical difficulties aggravated by the epidemic of Covid-19 and which hoped to launch this summer a robot towards Mars, was postponed to 2022.
© 2020 AFP