China’s First Mars Mission Ready for Takeoff

In the process, they will loop out beyond Earth’s orbit and sync up with Mars’ more distant orbit around the sun.

The US is sending over a car-sized six-wheeled rover named Perseverance to collect rock samples to be returned to Earth for analysis in about a decade.

Its launch date has been set for between July 30 and Aug. 15.

The UAE spacecraft, named Amal, or “Hope” in Arabic, is an orbiter built in partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder and is now scheduled to launch from Japan on Monday.

It will be the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.

Scientists want to know what Mars was like billions of years ago, back when it had water sources that may have supported tiny life forms before turning into the frozen world it is today.

So far, the US has been the only country to successfully put a spacecraft on Mars, doing it eight times.

Two NASA landers are operating there, InSight and Curiosity. Six other spacecraft are exploring the planet from orbit: three US, two European and one from India.

China’s last attempt at a Mars mission in collaboration with Russia ended in failure in 2011.

The Chinese space program's close military connections and the relative secrecy within it operates has limited its opportunities for cooperation with those of the US and other countries. 

(Writer: AP)

Source: https://apnews.com/b864bfa8365c9610b6304a16ce5e4320