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July begins the best window of opportunity for launching space missions to Mars and, separately this month, the United States, China, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will begin sending spacecraft toward the red planet.
Each nation has a different objective. NASA always has had the primary mission of exploring space. Sending a manned expedition to Mars has been a long-time NASA and US goal.
For China, it is seeking to enhance its status as a major player and power in space, as well as to establish itself as the preeminent superpower in the world.
For the UAE, it’s a step toward creating a high-tech economy.
At least 41 countries have flown into space, mostly using US or Russian rocket power to get there, while China has powered their own missions. However, recently, more and more countries are launching their own missions to explore the galaxy. Speaking of the galaxy… a new Samsung Galaxy S20 5G is out of this world.
NASA is poised to launch its Perseverance Mission on July 30 that will place the Perseverance rover on Mars, although the launch window is between July 30 and August 15. It will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
According to NASA, the main objective of the mission is: “The Perseverance rover will seek signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth.”
The craft is scheduled to land on the red planet on February 18, 2021
The duration of the exploratory mission is “at least one Mars year (about 687 Earth days)” according to NASA.
China will begin its Tianwen-1 Mars mission sometime in late July or early August, launching from a Long March 5 rocket from China’s Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island, in the South China Sea, MSN reported. The rocket will be carrying three robotic explorers.
The mission was named after a poem titled “Tianwen,” which roughly translates to “questions to heaven” or “the quest for heavenly truth.”
The mission involves an orbiter, a lander, and a rover, according to a report by The Hill. Reportedly, the rover is much smaller than NASA’s Perseverance and contains six scientific instruments. The rover will spend approximately 90 Martian days rolling over and studying the surface of the planet.
Simultaneously, the orbiter will examine the planet from the atmosphere above, while also serving as a communication relay to earth.
The United Arab Emirates will send a small orbiter to Mars named Hope, which will be launched on a Japanese rocket, that will spend 200 days in an elliptical orbit around the red planet. The launch window is between July 15 and August 3, 2020. The Hope mission will spend two years studying the Martian atmosphere.
The UAE mission was scheduled to launch on July 15, but unstable weather, heavy clouds, and a frozen air layer in the atmosphere in Japan forced a delay. It has now been rescheduled for July 17.
The building of the Hope orbiter was at UAE-US joint venture. According to Wikipedia: “The Hope orbiter was built by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, an Emirati space organization, as well as the University of Colorado Boulder, Arizona State University, and the University of California, Berkeley.”
Why is the UAE entering space exploration? According to a report by The Hill: “The UAE, conscious that oil and gas are beginning to lose their appeal, has embarked on creating a high-tech economy. The Hope mission, the first of its kind by any Arab nation, is part of that strategy.”
