China eyes Mars Mission by 2020

China has drawn up plans to send a rover to Mars around 2020 to explore the Red Planet and, also, launch 150 long range carrier rockets in the next five years as a part of its ambitious space missions. Director of the National Space Administration has indicated that the Mars probe will orbit the red planet, land and deploy a rover all in one mission - it is expected to be a mission difficult to achieve.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 22 April 2016.

India has already earned accolades for becoming the first Asian country after it sent Mangalyan to the red planet and, thus,entered the august league nations like the US, European Union and Russia which have sent successful missions to Mars. China did make an attempt to launch its Mars probe Yinghuo-1 in 2011 along with Russian Fobos-Grunt from Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan but, unfortunately, it was declared lost.
Along with the Mars mission of 2020, China has plans to launch about 150 of its Long March carrier rockets over the next five years. It will be a part of its 13th five-year plan period (2016-2020). In that period, there will be about 30 launches (of the Long March series) every year. This has been announced by assistant president of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
He indicated that there were 86 Long March missions in the five years from 2011 to 2015, and 48 from 2006 to 2010. Obviously, it can be said that China is fast catching up with other countries after being a relative latecomer in human space endeavours.
Incidentally, it has launched the SJ-10 retrievable scientific research satellite earlier this month - it was to mark the 226th mission of the Long March rocket family. Incidentally, the pace of launches is accelerating because, while the first 100 Long March missions took 37 years, the next 100 came within just seven years.
Moreover, China's second orbiting space lab, Tiangong-2, will be launched in fall this year and it is scheduled to dock with manned spacecraft Shenzhou-11 in the fourth quarter.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki Venus probe on 2nd orbital mission to Venus in December

#Akatsuki #JAXA #space #venus It would be a second chance for a Japanese spacecraft to orbit Venus in December – it would be five years after the first attempt failed. The Akatsuki probe was supposed to begin circling planet Earth's hellishly hot sister planet in December 2010, but the main engine of the craft failed during the crucial orbital-insertion burn.
From that day onwards, Akatsuki has been orbiting the sun and waiting for another opportunity to have a shot at Venus and that seems to have arrived.
It has been reported in space.com dated 6 April 2015 that officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have settled on a fresh date of 7 December for the second attempt.
The $300 million Akatsuki probe was launched in May 2010 and its mission was to help researchers better understand how Venus, which was similar to Earth in the solar system's early days, ended up being so hot and seemingly inhospitable to life.

Akatsuki had blasted off on the same rocket as JAXA's IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) spacecraft, which had become the first probe ever to travel through deep space using a solar sail.
Incidentally, the Akatsuki mission was Japan's second attempt to explore another planet by means of a robotic space probe. Its first interplanetary spacecraft, the Nozomi Mars orbiter, had also been riddled with problems after its launch, which occurred in 1998.
From the date, it would be obvious that Japan was much ahead of other countries in space research and travels to distant planets. International Space Station had been launched in November 1998.

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NASAs Mars rover Opportunity completes a marathon on Mars in 11 years 2 months

#marsrover #NASA #Opportunity #space #redplanet A marathon means 26.2-miles and the reading on the odometer of Mars rover Opportunity now reads 26.2-miles – hence, one can safely say that Opportunity has completed a marathon. Only, it has taken 11-years and 2-months to complete this marathon – it had landed on Mars in 2004 for a three-month prime mission.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 25 March 2015.

In the course of its travel over the surface of the Red Planet, it yielded evidence of environments with liquid water soaking the ground and flowing on the surface of the planet. Both Opportunity and its twin Spirit, had succeeded in uncovering geologic signs of ancient water. But, Spirit's mission ended in 2011 soon after it got stuck in Martian sand.
Opportunity crossed the marathon distance of 26.219 miles (42.195 kilometers) with a drive completed on March 24, 2015 – this happened during the 3,968th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on the Red Planet Mars.

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