Mission duration ≥ 1 Earth year Spacecraft component orbiter | Rocket Long March 5 | |
Mission type Technology, reconnaissance Operator National Space Science Centre (NSSC) Launch date July/August 2020 (proposed) | ||
The 2020 Chinese Mars Mission is a planned project by China to place a Mars orbiter, lander and rover on Mars. The mission is planned to be launched in July or August 2020 with a Long March 5 heavy lift rocket.
Contents
Overview
China's Mars program started in 2009 in a partnership with Russia. However, the Russian spacecraft Fobos-Grunt carrying a Chinese orbiter Yinghuo-1 crashed on November 9, 2011, after lift-off. After that, China started its own Mars project.
The spacecraft is being developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and managed by the National Space Science Centre (NSSC) in Beijing. This Mars mission would be a demonstration of technology needed for a Mars sample return mission proposed for the 2030s. The lander carrying the rover will use a parachute, retrorockets, and an airbag to achieve landing.
The rover will be powered by solar panels, probe the ground with radar, perform chemical analyses on the soil, and look for biomolecules and biosignatures.
The priorities of the mission include; finding both current and previous life, and evaluating the planet's surface and environment. Solo and joint explorations of the Mars orbiter and rover will have a huge impact in finding and returning, the Martian surface topography, soil characteristics, material composition, water ice, atmosphere, ionosphere field, and other scientific data will be collected.
Scientific instruments
The notional payload consists of: