Chinese Scientists Update Legislators on Mars and Space Station Missions during Two Sessions

May 25, 2020 (EIRNS)—The scientific establishment in China always takes advantage of the presence hundreds of reporters from around the world there (although reduced this year due to the pandemic), to hold press conferences and grant interviews on the sidelines of the Two Sessions of the National People’s Congress and CPPCC. This year’s focus is China’s Mars mission, to launch in July, and the upcoming first launch in the space station program.

As reported by Science and Technology Daily, the third group of astronauts, who will be selected in July and going to the space station, for the first time will include scientists. The scientists will be given a fair amount of flexibility, to “use their professional knowledge” to make adjustments and improve the experiments and equipment, according to their need. It will take 11 manned and unmanned flights to assemble the station, over the next two years.

On the Mars mission, the briefers reiterated that China’s mission to Mars—Tianwen-1—will be ready to launch in July. Zhao Xiaojin, from the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology, said this mission can further shorten the gap between China and the U.S., Russia, and Europe in deep space exploration. No country has completed such an undertaking, of sending an orbiter, lander, and rover in its first mission to Mars, Zhao said, an effort which increases the risk.