A Long March-5 rocket, China's largest launch vehicle carrying the spacecraft with a mass of about five tons, soared into the sky from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of southern China's island province of Hainan at 12:41 p.m. (Beijing Time).
About 36 minutes later, the spacecraft, including an orbiter and a rover, was sent into the Earth-Mars transfer orbit, embarking on an almost seven-month journey to the red planet, according to the CNSA.
"Tianwen-1 is going to orbit, land and release a rover all on the very first try, and coordinate observations with an orbiter. No planetary missions have ever been implemented in this way. If successful, it would signify a major technical breakthrough," said an opinion piece on Nature, a world-renown weekly international science and technology journal.
Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany's international broadcaster, said the mission to Mars is "ambitious," not for the inclusion of an orbiter and a Mars rover, but also because it has only taken China several years from the initial planning and mission design to launch in July 2020.
"As with many Mars missions, Tianwen-1 is about learning more about the Red Planet and, through that, for scientists to learn more about our own planet," the DW added.
The scientific goals of Tianwen-1 include mapping the morphology and geological structure, investigating surface soil characteristics and water-ice distribution, analyzing the surface material composition, measuring the ionosphere and the characteristics of the Martian climate and environment at the surface, and perceiving the physical fields and internal structure of Mars.
【国内英语资讯:Spotlight: Chinas first Mars mission attracts global attention】相关文章:
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