The new space race is on, and it has set its sights on Mars. In 2020, three spacecraft from the US, China, and the UAE had set up a seven-month trip to Mars during a launch window that lasts for a few weeks once every 2.2 years. In February 2021, the three spacecraft, Perseverance, Tianwen-1, and the Hope rover, had all made their destination.
The first to arrive is Hope from the United Arab Emirates. It was tasked with investigating the planet’s atmosphere and finding signs of life. The mission’s leading scientist Sarah Al Amiri, who is widely celebrated as the one most important to the country’s first successful Mars mission and was named Time magazine’s next 100 influential people. This accomplishment has made UAE the second country after India to enter orbit on the first try.
The second to arrive on Mars is China’s Tianwen-1. After entering orbit, the success was widely celebrated in the country through both state and social media. Its mission included landing with a rover on Mars, which will happen in May this year. The orbiter will study the planet, while shepherding and preparing for the rover’s landing. This shows China’s ambition as a rising space power, and it has not gone unnoticed, some from outside the country joining in the celebration of this successful orbit, one of these being renowned astrophysicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who wrote on Twitter: “Congratulations to China for arriving at the planet Mars today, with their Tianwen-1 “Heavenly Questions” mission”.
The last mission to land was NASA’s Perseverance rover. Equipped with a helicopter Ingenuity, the rover landed after experiencing seven minutes of terror before landing in Jezero crater, a spot interested by scientists who think that place may hold the key to life on Mars. The rover has already sent photos from the surface and is using Twitter to keep the public posted on its whereabouts and experiences. On China’s social media websites, even though it is rife with disdain and anti-American sentiments, there were still a lot of positive comments supporting the space mission, one of them writing "Although the US has been picking fights with our country during the past few years, we should not hold back anything but celebrate the rover's landing, as once it flies out of Earth, it represents the entirety of mankind. And our Tianwen-1 is coming next.”
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