Twin hotshots to the Red Planet

摘要

THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES was first away with its Hope mission, launched on a Japanese H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima, Japan, on 20 July - close to the 2020 launch window opening. The 493 billion km flight culminates in orbital insertion in February 2021. The planned orbit of this $200 million mission is 43,000 km ⅹ 20,000 km with an orbital period of 55 hr so that it can study the Martian atmosphere. It was planned as part of the UAE's 50th birthday of the UAE. Second off to Mars was China's Tianwen-1 mission on 23 July, launched by Long March 5. In February 2021 it will insert itself into a highly elliptical orbit and then move to a near-polar path with a periapsis of 265 km, there to conduct a detailed reconnaissance of the potential landing site before releasing the lander which will carry a rover to a site in Utopia Planitia where NASA's Viking 2 resides. The mission closely resembles the Viking programme of the mid-1970s with the added advantage of a rover.