Mission to Mars: The race for the Red Planet

Mission to Mars: The race for the Red Planet

The UAE launched its first mission to Mars, the Hope Probe, from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center on July 20.





China is scheduled to launch an unmanned probe to Mars on Thursday, aiming to demonstrate its technological prowess as it makes a bid for global leadership in space with its first independent mission to visit another planet.

Here are some facts about missions to Mars by China and other countries:

- China's unmanned Mars probe, named Tianwen-1 after "Tianwen", or "Questions to Heaven", comprises an orbiter, lander and rover to be delivered by the powerful Long March 5 rocket. If successful, it will make China the first country to orbit, land and deploy a rover in its inaugural mission.

- The Long March 5's journey through space will take about seven months, while landing will take seven minutes. China's probe will carry several scientific instruments to observe the planet's atmosphere and surface, searching for signs of water and ice.

- In 2003, China became the third country to put a man in space with its own rocket after the former Soviet Union and the United States. In 2011, a joint Mars mission with Russia failed when the Russian spacecraft carrying the probe failed