Tianwen-1

Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

04:41:15

Thursday July 23, 2020

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Mission Details

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Launch Notes

First Chinese Mars and interplanetary mission, first non-Soviet and non-US rover. The first stage burned 6 seconds longer than expected, but the second stage was able to compensate.

Tianwen-1

Wiki

Tianwen-1 (from Chinese: 天问一号, "celestial questions" in English) is a Martian space probe by the Chinese Space Agency (CNSA) developed and built by CASC, China's leading space industry. The probe consists of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover that will explore the planet's surface. After the failure in 2011 of the joint Sino-Russian Phobos-Grunt mission that carried the small Chinese satellite Yinghuo 1, it was finally decided to conduct the next Chinese mission independently. The successes of the Chang'e lunar exploration programme, in particular the landing system for Chang'e 3 and 4, provide sufficient technology for an ambitious mission. The project is approved in 2016, making it China's first interplanetary probe. The spacecraft with a total weight of nearly 5 tons is one of the heaviest probes ever launched to Mars and carries a total of 13 scientific instruments. The orbiter, which has a lifespan of two years and is responsible for orbital manoeuvres, is equipped with two medium (MoRIC) and high-resolution (HiRIC) cameras, a ground-penetrating radar, an infrared spectrometer, a magnetometer, and two particle detectors. The 240 kg rover has a life span of 3 months and carries a stereoscopic navigation camera (NaTeCam), a multispectral camera, a ground-penetrating radar, a magnetometer, an imaging spectrometer (MarsCoDe), and a weather station. The scientific objectives of the mission focus on the geology of Mars, the present and past presence of water on and beneath its surface, and the interaction of its atmosphere with solar particles. After two months of studying the landing site, the re-entry capsule will detach from the orbiter in April 2021 to perform an atmospheric re-entry, then release the lander to deposit the rover on the planet's surface. The orbiter will serve as a communications relay during the rover's primary mission and then move to a more suitable orbit for observations while maintaining its relay role.

Heliocentric Orbit

1 Payload

4,920 kilograms

Rocket

Active
Long March 5

Active Since 2017

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation logo

Agency

CASC

Rocket

Height: 57m

Payload to Orbit

LEO: 32,000 kg

GTO: 14,000 kg

Liftoff Thrust

10,565 Kilonewtons

Fairing

Diameter: 5.2m

Height: 20m

Stages

3

Strap-ons

4

Launch Site

LC-101

Wenchang Space Launch Site, China

Fastest Turnaround

69 days 21 hours

Stats

Long March 5


4th

Mission

1st

Mission of 2020

2020


55th

Orbital launch attempt