What’s Ahead for China’s Space Program in 2021?

What’s Ahead for China’s Space Program in 2021?
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2021 promises to be an exciting year for China in space. On February 10, China’s independent Mars mission, the Tianwen 1, will attempt to enter Martian orbit. Once it succeeds in entering Martian orbit, Tianwen 1 will spend around two to three months surveying Mars for a suitable landing site. After landing, a rover will be released to study Mars’ surface. If China succeeds in entering Mars orbit, landing, and sending out a rover on its surface, it would have caught up with U.S. Mars capability in a single attempt.

The challenges to a successful Mars mission are several. Unlike the moon, where China has demonstrated numerous successful robotic soft landings, Mars landings are a challenge. For one thing, Mars has an atmosphere. This means that parachutes will have to be used to slow down the descent, something Chinese space engineers are not familiar with. Mars’ gravity has to be accounted for as well. The distance between Earth and Mars (up to 400 million kilometers) requires resolving the communication challenge and time lag. Two relay satellites in Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO), Tianlian I-02 and Tianlian II-01 are being prepared to meet this unique challenge. Several orbital corrections have been conducted since the Mars mission launched in July last year.


Geng Yan, a space official with the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), stated that “We only have a limited understanding of Mars. There are still many uncertainties about the environment and great risks… it’s immensely difficult to simulate the ..

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