People’s Republic of China Launches its First Independent Mission to Mars
China’s largest-ever carrier rocket, the Long March 5 Y-4, was launched at 0441 GMT from Wenchang center, on the southern island of Hainan. In 2020, Mars is at its nearest to Earth, at a distance of about 55 million kilometers. The Mars probe is expected to reach the planet in February where it will try to land in the northern hemisphere in a plain called Utopia Planitia and deploy a rover to search for 90 days. If triumphant, the Tianwen-1, or “Questions to Heaven”, the name of poetry written nearly two millennia ago, will make PRC the first country to orbit, land, and deploy a rover in its first-ever mission. Since 1960, almost 70% of the missions to Mars including flybys had been unsuccessful, due to technical problems. Only a few attempted to land on the planet. Liu Tonjie, the mission spokesman stated, Check out? UAE Successfully Manages to Launch its First Mission to Mars
