Ever since man has stepped on the Moon, we¡¯ve been looking for the next big space frontier. And the closest planet that seems somewhat practical to explore is our neighbour -- Mars.?
Since a few years, space agencies around the world have sent across orbiters and rovers to better study the red planet.?
However, this month will be special for Mars as it anticipates three visitors in its orbit. Last year three space agencies launched their three different spacecraft to Mars, and the three of them are scheduled to approach the planet this month.
The first one to reach in this marathon is the United Arab Emirates¡¯s Hope Orbiter. The orbiter was launched aboard Japanese H-IIA rocket and is expected to arrive on Mars on February 9th.?
The orbiter will orbit the planet for around two years collecting all kinds of atmospheric data to better understand Martian weather. The development took around six years with a budget of $200 million from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.?
Not far from the Hope Orbiter is China¡¯s Tianwen-1 spacecraft that will reach the planet on February 10. Tianwen stands for ¡®questions to heaven¡¯ and the orbiter¡¯s primary mission is to survey Mars¡¯s Utopia Planitia region to better study the large deposits of ice that¡¯s beneath the Martian surface. But that¡¯s not all.?
Three months later, it will deploy a rover on the Martian surface, which, if successful, will make China the second country to do so, after the US.
The rover is loaded with a paraphernalia of instruments that will help it detect deposits of subsurface water ice, which according to scientists could give us some idea on microbial life on the planet.?
Soon after China¡¯s Tianwen-1, NASA¡¯s Perseverance rover will reach the Martian surface, on February 18th. The NASA rover is expected to touchdown at the Jezero Crater which is believed to be the site of an ancient river delta and could possess traces of past living organisms.?
This will be NASA¡¯s ninth mission to Mars which, like the ones before will experience the ¡®seven minutes of terror¡¯ when it will deploy parachutes with four propulsive engines to slow down the rover descending at 12,100 miles per hour.
What¡¯s scarier is that Jezero crater is an unpredictable territory with cliffs, sand dunes and large rocks. This payload also has the Ingenuity helicopter for conducting flybys throughout Mars.?