Mars ambition 1

So far, only the United States has successfully landed probes or rovers on Mars, starting in July of 1976 with Viking 1. It probably won't stay that way much longer. 

This summer Mars will be closer than any time since July of 2018. A number of countries plan to launch probes, along with private sector SpaceX and Virgin Orbit LLC. And China:

"The Chinese space agency is preparing a mid-year mission to Mars, marking the most ambitious project on an exploration checklist intended to achieve equal footing with NASA . . .

"Landing the unmanned probe on the red planet would cap President Xi Jinping’s push to make China a superpower in space. The nation already has rovers on the moon, and it’s making bold plans to operate an orbiting space station, establish a lunar base and explore asteroids by the 2030s."

photo

from Bloomberg

(cont'd tomorrow)