Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Monday May 25 2020, @11:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the space-race-is-getting-longer dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

China is targeting a July launch for its ambitious plans for a Mars mission which will include landing a remote-controlled robot on the surface of the red planet, the company in charge of the project has said.

Beijing has invested billions of dollars in its space programme in an effort to catch up with its rival the United States and affirm its status as a major world power.

The Mars mission is among a number of new space projects China is pursuing, including putting Chinese astronauts on the moon and having a space station by 2022.

Beijing had been planning the Mars mission for sometime this year, but China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has confirmed it could come as early as July.

"This big project is progressing as planned and we are targeting a launch in July," CASC said in a statement issued on Sunday.

CASC is the main contractor for China's space programme.

Called "Tianwen", the Chinese mission will put a probe into orbit around Mars and land the robotic rover to explore and analyse the surface.

Also at:
Rocket arrives as China targets July for Tianwen-1 Mars mission launch


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2020, @06:33PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2020, @06:33PM (#999320)

    that's what i was thinking: how much of that big fat budget was total theft/waste.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 26 2020, @08:00PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 26 2020, @08:00PM (#999354) Journal
    Point is that if you're looking for money to throw at space stuff, the US spends more than the rest of the world combined. While China is a big spender (they're the second place by that), they're not far ahead of the ESA people. I think the real money is on the sidelines - the many tens of trillions of dollars in world capital that could be redirected when a serious economy develops in space. That's not happening any time soon.