Interplanetary missions will be included in the national program of planetary exploration
BEIJING, May 17. /TASS/. China plans to launch new missions to Mars and Jupiter to explore these planets and return rock samples to Earth. This was stated by the chief designer of the national Mars mission "Tianwen-1" Zhang Rongqiao.
"After the successful landing of the Tianwen-1 mission, which is now believed to be only one step away from a successful completion, the next stage will be the launch of Tianwen-2, Tianwen-3 and other missions to Mars and other planets, such as Jupiter, to study them and collect samples. This is included in the national program of planetary exploration, " the Chinese newspaper Huanqiu Shibao quoted him as saying on Monday.
"We will continue to research on key technologies to be able to deliver [to Earth] samples from Mars at an early stage and further strengthen our technological solutions," he said.
According to him, the details of the program are currently being worked out, after which it will be submitted to the government for consideration.
The automatic interplanetary station "Tianwen-1" on Saturday made a successful landing on the surface of the Red Planet, which was the first landing of a Chinese spacecraft on Mars. The rover, named "Zhuzhong", which is part of it, will soon study the soil, ionosphere and climate of the planet. The period of its operation on the surface of the Red Planet will be 92 earth days.
The Tianwen-1 station was launched on July 23, 2020, using a Changzheng-5 launch vehicle from the Wenchang space center, located in the southern Chinese province of Hainan. In February, it reached the orbit of Mars.
