In rapid succession we have 3 different probes reaching Mars close together. First we had the United Arab Emirates probe “Hope,” launched aboard a Japanese booster. It will study the Martian atmosphere. Among other things we need to understand how the planet is periodically engulfed in massive dust storms and how to predict them.
The Chinese got into the act as well. Their probe, Tianwen-1, just went into a polar orbit around Mars. Later it will send a rover to the surface to scout for signs of life. This is China’s most complex mission ever, having recently sent a lander to the far side of the moon.
I think a space race is developing between the US and China with China trying to rack up accomplishments to prove they are in the same league as the US. The long term issue with this kind of competition is that once you’ve won – or lost- you stop putting in the effort. Like the Apollo program where we beat the Soviets to the moon and then promptly lost interest in it.
Competitors forget that there really is no finish line, but rather a never ending journey. Finish lines are really just ports of call on the way to ever greater unknowns. You will never reach the horizon. While I’d prefer a steady march into the future, progress thru competition is marked by fits of intense activity and long periods of stagnation. But… if competition is more effective than cooperation in getting space explored, developed, and eventually colonized, I’ll take it.
The space probe most of the world is looking at is the American made Perseverance. It is the most complex planetary probe ever built. It will enter the Martian atmosphere and initially slow by aerobraking and when it has slowed enough, a supersonic parachute will open to slow it further. Retrorockets will them slow it to hover over the Martian surface to look for a safe place to touch down. Finally, the rover will separate and be lowered to the ground by cables using a “sky crane” so that dust doesn’t get stirred up which could coat instruments and infiltrate joints.
Perseverance uses the same vehicle as the spectacularly successful Curiosity rover but will have more instruments, specifically optimized to look for signs of life..It is landing where the delta of an ancient river entered an equally ancient lake and it is not impossible there might be evidence of subsurface water. It will drill soil samples from different depths and locations and what it does not analyze immediately will be set aside for a future return mission. But… that’s not all.
On board is a helicopter drone named Ingenuity. It will range over large areas, seeking out likely locations to prospect and guide the rover safely to them. If it works here, it can be used for other alien worlds with an atmosphere, such as Saturn’s moon Titan.
Of course, this assumes every step of an insanely complex process in an alien environment goes perfectly. Mars is hard. Only 60% of the probes sent there survive to do their job. It is good to do things that are hard It is how one expends your capabilities. It makes you stronger. In the future the same job isn’t as hard so you set your goals higher.
February 23, 2021 at 10:26
Competition can definitely be a good thing. Helps to push the boundaries beyond all reason.
February 19, 2021 at 16:49
I have always loved NASA space missions. I remember, as a kid, staying up late to watch the first man walk on the moon. But as much as I love space exploration, I have to wonder about any plans to establish human colonies on Mars. Why? Mars is a barren, cold environment.
February 18, 2021 at 15:09
I should have known you’d beat me to this! It’s a big story here in Nevada because they trained with the rover here in the desert and some UNLV professors are among those involved in the mission. TubiTV somehow synchonized enough to toss me The Angry Red Planet to watch yesterday. So I have a planned blog post, if it gets written. You never know these days. 😛 But yes, it’s cool! And you have a good point about the competition aspect. There is also much touting about how allowing corporations to enter the space race for profit is going to be the real door opener. I’m afraid I’m cynical enough to suspect what that will do is get us space for profit, like medicine for profit. Something that could be of great benefit to all mankind, but that is instead reserved for the uber-rich and maybe a few of their close minions. It is interesting, too, if you watch lots of scifi how much more progress we expected to have made in space back in the 50s. I guess 2021 seemed so impossibly far in the future that of course by then we’d have space yachts and be casually flying around to the moon and planets and planning bigger trips to explore the universe. Instead we seem to have become almost impossibly mired in the problems here and our inability to work in cooperation. It’s good to see some progress being made. In space at least.