Thanks to a very positive launch window, in the days between July and August 2020 there will be three missions leaving for Mars. They are USA, China and Arab Emirates, and all of them are looking for the life!
Mars, three missions and a launch window
Between the 14th of july and the 11th of august there is a launch window toward the red planet which is very positive. The two planets are in a great position along their respective orbits. This happens about every two years. It is for this reason that everyone would like a little piece of sky for this summer 2020.
To leave as first toward Mars was Hope, the probe of the Arab Emirates, the 20th of july. Planned for the end of the month of juky, instead, is the launch of the chinese probe Tianwen – 1. While to close the line will be the NASA, that would like to launch the rover Perseverance between the 30th of july and the 15th of august.
Who remained outside the launch window of this year will have to wait until the 2022 to have another one. It is the case of the ESA. The Europe, infact, won’t be able to use these positive days to launch its Rosalind Franklin, of the mission ExoMars 2020, which, like the name says, had, instead, to be launched right this year.
Because of the delays caused by the Covid -19, though, the rover of ExoMars 2020 isn’t ready to fly over the skies toward the red planet, and it will have to wait other two years before to leave.
Hope, the mission of the Arab Emirates
The first ones on the launching pad are the Arab Emirates, with the mission Hope, which is going on Mars!
After some delays because of the bad weather, the last 20th of july, at the 11:58 pm (italian time), Hope left, it’s the first mission of the Arab Emirates toward the red planet.
The probe was launched by an arab rocket realized by the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, from Japan.
The name that the Arab Emirates gave to their first mission on Maes is Hope. And, like the project leaders said, Hope is a good omen message, in order to let the young people get closer to the science’s world and get passionated of it.
Another message of hope is the one that the Arab Emirates says to themselves too. It isn’t a case, infact, that the expected date of arrival on the red planet is February 2021, in occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Arab Emirates unification.
Hope won’t land on Mars, but it will remain in orbit, to study the composition of the martial atmosphere. Especially it will have to understand which are the levels of oxygen and hydrogen. The purpose is the one to understand how, when and why the planet became unhospital for the life.
Doing that we will be able to understand how was the martian atmosphere in the past, when on its surface there were the right conditions to host the life.
Tianwen – 1, the chinese probe
It is the first time that a chinese vehicle goes so far away, and it does with big ambitious. Tianwen 1, which name means “Research of the celestial truth”, infact, isn’t obly one probe, but two. The first one will remain in orbit to study and to photograph the surface from above. The second one is a rover that will land on the martian sand, to study the rocks and the underground, searching for water.
Its purpose, infact, is the one to find clues of the presence present or past of water and of some signs of life.
Perseverance, the fifth rover of the NASA on Mars
It’s been eight years that the NASA is working to Perseverance, its fifth martian rover. It is a rover that weights more than a ton which looks like its colleague Curiosity, which is on Mars already for eight years.
But Perseverance is a younger brother much more advanced, compared with Curiosity. Onboard, infact, it has three robots, which duty will be the one to collect samples of land and rocks, which will come back on the Earth, onboard of another rover, in the next years.
Furthermore, it has a system to “read” the clues left by eventual microorganism living and to “find out” microfossils.
Perseverance will bring on the red planet the first spacial helicopter too. It is a small device with few flights of autonomy (5 or 6), equipped only with a camera. But its main purpose will be the one to experiment for the first time the autonomous flight on a different planet.
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