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Mars China

Chinese Spacecraft Enters Mars' Orbit, Joining Arab Ship (apnews.com) 90

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
A Chinese spacecraft went into orbit around Mars on Wednesday on an expedition to land a rover on the surface and scout for signs of ancient life, authorities announced in a landmark step in the country's most ambitious deep-space mission yet. From a report: The arrival of Tianwen-1 after a journey of seven months and nearly 300 million miles (475 million kilometers) is part of an unusual burst of activity at Mars: A spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates swung into orbit around the red planet on Tuesday, and a U.S. rover is set to arrive next week. China's space agency said the five-ton combination orbiter and rover fired its engine to reduce its speed, allowing it to be captured by Mars' gravity. "Entering orbit has been successful ... making it our country's first artificial Mars satellite," the agency announced. The mission is bold even for a space program that has racked up a steady stream of achievements and brought prestige to China's ruling Communist Party.
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Chinese Spacecraft Enters Mars' Orbit, Joining Arab Ship More

Chinese Spacecraft Enters Mars' Orbit, Joining Arab Ship

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  • I'm voting we set up the UN on Mars.

  • Use tech to explore, not bludgeon & hack (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @03:37PM (#61048300) Journal

    It's hopeful to see more countries doing space exploration. I wish both countries a successful mission. It's also handy to have backup communication channels for rovers and landers if the US orbiters fall ill.

  • Hope it'll all work (Score:4, Interesting)

    by xonen ( 774419 ) on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @03:38PM (#61048302) Journal

    I hope them Chinese engineers played enough KSP.

    Best luck to all of them projects. Science the shit out of that planet.

  • China working the the Arabs in Space. That is the rednecks worst nightmare. Unless they are planning to setup 5G there.

    Now their are rational concerns about countries who have a tenuous relationship with the United States, having the economics, expertise and diplomatic relations to do such things. Showing how the United State Influence is lessening in the world, as other countries are stepping up to fill the Gap that we created.
     

  • Ya know what would really bring prestige to the Chinese Communist Party? Allowing opposition parties to participate in free and fair elections. And not committing genocide against minorities. Fuck CCP tyranny. Free Hong Kong.

    • Re:Prestige? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Ardashir ( 2478492 ) on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @07:03PM (#61048836)
      Do you want people commenting under every US news story about the dronings, Lybia, Syria, Iraq, and the whole shebang? Let's keep this website to the nerdy news. Those living in glass houses should especially avoid stone throwing sports...
      • Thank you for taking the time to offer me advice on limiting my criticism of genocidal tyranny. Please allow me to offer you some advice in return. I will never remain silent about such things- attempts by gatekeeping drek like yourself to curtail critical speech in answer to a propaganda piece celebrating Chinese Communist prowess deserve all the opprobrium one can muster. When you turn your blind eye to authoritarian tyranny you become complicit. Now I understand that tapeworms like yourself are capab
        • If you hate genocidal tyranny, you might want to look back a real champion of genocidal tyranny since WW2. THis country has sponsorted basicaly most homocidal maniacs in Latin America. Its also friends and actively supports and defends most of the homicidal terrorist funding kingdoms and emirates or plain old strong man dictators in the middle East. Remember the Taliban, guess who armed and trained them ? Remember uncle Saddam or those fun loving fundamentalist sponsoring, champions of fundamentalism the S
          • You are already insulting my intelligence by insisting that USA is objectively worse than Chinese Communist tyranny. Take this sophomoric stance if you just but it only serves to make you look silly. In the USA one is free to peacefully protest against policies that harm others. One can vote out politicians and communicate to journalists without fear of being used as an organ donor for your beliefs. You know what happens to the last peaceful protest against communist rule in China? The Communist tanks ra
            • > You are already insulting my intelligence by insisting that USA is objectively worse than Chinese Communist tyranny.
              I didnt name anyone, you obviously connected the dots by observing the past 50 years.
              Take the Saudis, they treat their women terribly, basically like prisoners, and this family are there very much in power today because of American help. Iran today lives in a fundamentalist tyranny because of CIA overthrowing their significantly better freer democracy. The Shah was in power because of
              • Have you been to China? The difference is that you can critique US policy as much as you like, to anyone foolish enough to listen to your self-loathing bilge. Now try posting a critique of Chinese Communist Party policy from inside China without the benefit of a VPN and see what happens. It will be highly educational for you. Now I agree the US has allies that are not democratic or nice. And sometimes they do awful things outside the geographical jurisdiction of US. And sometimes the US is remiss in faili
                • > Have you been to China? The difference is that you can critique US policy as much as you like, to anyone foolish enough to listen to your self-loathing bilge
                  When did i deny China is not a tyranny ?
                  If you actually knew how to read, I quite clearly acknoweldged this but i mentioned that if we were to weight shear numbers of people affect or killed, America is the champion.
                  > Now try posting a critique of Chinese Communist Party policy from inside China without the benefit of a VPN and see what ha
                • Can you tell me how many dictators America has sponsored and actively helped in the past 50 years ?

                  Can you tell me how many millions of people have been kept living in totalitarian shitholes because of America helping their evil leaders ?

                  How many countries in the middle east or Latin America do you think thank america for the dictators american bullets helped keep in power ?
                  • Funny how the enthusiasts for China over America revert to interrogation methods, isnâ(TM)t it? Listen my misguided fervently anti-American pal- letâ(TM)s get one thing straight- you are not my interrogator and you would be useless at interrogation anyway since you have demonstrated that you canâ(TM)t discern truth from fiction. You say with a straight face that - and here I quote- âoeAmerica is far worse than China for freedomâ. Now that does not comport with reality- in other w

                    • Do you know what we call people who repeat untruths?

                      For the previous 4 years you called him Mr President.
                      Thankfully, now we can call him, twice impeached former President Trump.

                    • > Funny how the enthusiasts for China over America revert to interrogation methods, isnâ(TM)t it
                      It would appear you cant read. Not once have i said I support in China, in fact he have constantly shared multiple examples of and called them arseholes.
                      You dont seem to grasp that yes China i will repeat again the CCP gov are a bunch of aresholes, who kill and steal and many other horrible actions. However America is far worse, on a far grander scale.
                      Both countries gov and actions by those govs are
                    • > Do you know what we call people who repeat untruths

                      When did i say i supported China in any form ?

                      I have done quite the opposite, i have labelled the CCP a bunch of aresholes many times. It would appear the dishonest person here is yourself.
                      Of course feel free to share a quote where i have said i support the China Communist Party or where i have denied the evils of the CCP.
                      Both the CCP and USA gov are aresholes, its just an argument about which is bigger, Stalin or Hitler.
                    • We are done. You have proved a deluded fool with an ugly anti American streak. There is nothing further for us to discuss, because you are not worth persuading, indeed cannot be persuaded because of your deep prejudice. Perhaps one day you will be unlucky and endure real totalitarianism. Then perhaps you will grow up and achieve a little wisdom. I doubt it though. Until then am sure you will continue to disgrace yourself with ignorance.
                    • > We are done. You have proved a deluded fool with an ugly anti American streak.
                      Deluded ?
                      Theres something seriously wrong when America supports the worlds chief supporters of Terrorism and fundamentalism the Saudi Royal Family. We also know that the taliban were armed, trained and more by America aswell ?
                      Who makes deals under any circumstances with people like that ?
                      Please tell me who makes deals with people like that ?

              • Iran today lives in a fundamentalist tyranny because of CIA overthrowing their significantly better freer democracy. The Shah was in power because of the CIA, and the corruption and abuses gave the aresholes that are the fundamentalists a chance.
                Yes, half correct. Because it was also the CIA who kicked the Shah, and set up and supported the two revolutionary groups to depose him. Why did they do that? Because the Shah insisted to reject Nixxon's demand he sells oil only for dollars an no other currency.
                BTW

                • >> Iran today lives in a fundamentalist tyranny because of CIA overthrowing their significantly better freer democracy. The Shah was in power because of the CIA, and the corruption and abuses gave the aresholes that are the fundamentalists a chance.
                  > Yes, half correct. Because it was also the CIA who kicked the Shah, and set up and supported the two revolutionary groups to depose him.
                  Dont worry about minor points, the spirit of my statement is the CIA and AMerican F policy are very much heavily
      • The drone bombings were after AQ, Taliban, ISIS, etc, and have done a remarkably clean job. Libya was pushed by Europe. Syria was first pushed by Russia because they lied about chemical weapons and Isis had control of them. About the only one that you can blame and bitch (rightly) about America would be iraq2( w's/GOP cluster fuck).
        • As you do ably point out- The tapeworm above is attempting to silence criticism by drawing a false moral equivalence between the democracies of the West and Chinese Communism. This lie must be rejected entirely. The deliberate oppression and cruel acts of evil of the CCP are an authoritarian evil that no Western democratic government could contemplate. I hope the tapeworm reads this and hangs in head in shame at how low he has sunk.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tsa ( 15680 )

          You forgot Vietnam where you also behaved like raving maniacs. The fact that the US doesn’t want to recognize the International Criminal Court speaks for itself, naturally.

          • Nam was some 60-70 years ago, and we were brought into that by France.

            • Iâ(TM)m 52 and I still remeber that they used Agent Orange to destroy the rainforest so they could see people walk on the ground and bomb them.

              • Obviously, you remember reading history, not the stories. U would be 3 or 4 when nam was over, or you simply recall agent orange from reagan using it on pot.

                • Perhaps you want to check when Vietnam war was over.
                  I'm 54, and it happened during my lifetime.

                  • oops. Math.
                    First off, I missed being IN that war by 2 years.
                    It ended in 75 and he was born in 68. That is 7 years. Think that a 2nd grader pays attention to this? Nope.
                    I remember Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy assassination, but only because of side issues (sister in a hospital dying with my dad sitting on a runway waiting to deliver a package to the Soviets/my putting a screwdriver in my eye, respectively). Otherwise, I doubt that I would have recalled these. And I doubt that you RECALL much about it si

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by tsa ( 15680 )

                  According to Wikipedia that war was over on April 30th, 1975. I was six then.

                  • and you think that you paid attention to something that most ppl went to great lengths to avoid passing on to kids? Ask kindis, and 1st graders what they know about Afghanistan and Iraq today.

            • No, you were not.
              France left.
              You went in.

              Simple.

              Then you set up a puppet regime in the south. Did not grant them free elections - which you had agree to, when you took over the "protectorate" - then you did everything colonisation forces do: suppress the civilists, set up "corporations" that exploit the resources, smack down worker unions, imprison, torture, kill who ever resisted you. Finally you said: lets turn it into a war south versus north, so we get the south behind us and no not need to fight them.

              • Bull shit. We went in, because France asked to help them, while they left. We started going in there under IKE, all because of his friendship with France.

                Fucking German fascist.
              • Here. [wikipedia.org]
                And itw as the south that asked America to continue to support them once the French decided to leave.

          • Well, one of the last things Trump did was pardoning 4(?) mass murderers from "Blackwater Inc" who did a massacre somewhere in Iraq ...

            • Yeah, that was pretty disgusting.
              All of them should have remained in prison. I could not believe some of the BS that we do. Obama pardoned Manning, and Trump pardoned all of those that worked with him and the Russians. He pardoned multiple GOP that were found guilty of various crimes. and yes, he pardoned multiple troops/sailors/privateers that murdered/butchered ppl in Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.

              Personally, I am hoping that if W or Trump travel out of the nation that EU will nab them and try them for cri

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          done a remarkably clean job.

          Yes, they've pretty much eliminated the custom of having large wedding parties throughout the Middle East and Afghanistan. Now I'm not really certain what the point of that was, but they've done a great job of it.

          • BS. They still have large ones all over. You read about how Taliban, ISIS, AQ, etc are attacking at weddings and funerals.

    • Ya know what would really bring prestige to the Chinese Communist Party? Allowing opposition parties to participate in free and fair elections.

      What's the point for them in having prestige, but no power anymore?

    • Why dont you tell us about American corporations employee Chinese workers with slave wages, and pathetic working conditions ?

      Why dont you tell us about the grand beautify of paying a basketballer more in one weeks worth of sponsorship than all the school kids in all the factories in Vietnam to make the shows ?

      Is that fair ?

      Is it fair to pay a basketballer more than the thousands of kids who work 50+ hours a week to make the shoes ?

      How many kids in places like Vietnam working in a Nike Factory do

  • Rover Wars (Score:3)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @03:56PM (#61048356)

    There is definitely room for a new reality show here, Rover Wars on Mars. All you have to do to qualify for competition is land a rover on Mars.

    Season 1 starts in a few weeks.

  • Wonder what the MCRN feels about a Chinese craft monitoring their land.

  • The decent people of Earth must work to bring down dictatorships wherever they are found.

    In China, the UAE, Iran, Mars, WHEREVER !

  • The orbital manourvers are odd (Score:3)

    by idji ( 984038 ) on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @04:30PM (#61048446)
    Why did it go into a near equatorial orbit today, and then at apoapsis in some days it will go from 10 degrees to almost polar at 86 degrees? Wouldn't they have saved much more fuel by doing orbital insertion directly over the pole?

    • Re:The orbital manourvers are odd (Score:5, Informative)

      by Geoffrey.landis ( 926948 ) on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @09:27PM (#61049288) Homepage

      The Oberth effect means you want to do the capture burn as close to the planet as possible. This means you get a highly elliptical orbit-- their initial capture is into an orbit that's 1000 km at periapsis (lowest point), but nearly 50,000 km at apoapsis.
      (image at the BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/news/scien... [bbc.com])

      This gets them captured into orbit around Mars. This is the hard part, and it's the part that has to be done right the first time, because they only get one shot at it (*). The rest is just modifying the orbit to get it exactly where they want it, and there's no reason not to take their time to do that.

      The final orbit that they want is a 55 hour equatorial orbit, 22,000 km by 43,000 km (why so high? This gives them a global view-- good for climate and weather. There are already other probes looking at the surface). They could do the kick burn to raise the periapsis immediately (which is to say, 20 hours after the initial capture burn... but since there's no hurry, it makes more sense to take a few days to measure the orbit exactly (by Doppler ranging) and do the orbit raising slowly.

      (...I'm not sure where you got the 'near polar at 86 degrees' information. Hope is going for equatorial, I think. It's an atmospheric satellite, not a reconaissance satellite).

      *footnote: actually, the Japanese missed an orbital insertion on the Akatsuki Venus orbiter, went around the sun eight times, and got another shot at it (and succeeded!). So, it's not absolutely true that you only get one shot at orbital insertion. If you are very very lucky, and the planets line up right, and you can wait long enough for your orbit to encounter the target planet a second time, sometimes you can get another try. But don't count on it!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by idji ( 984038 )
        I know about the Oberth effect, (I've got a degree in Physics, studied orbital mechanics, and calculated Mercury's relativistic time dilation. I can even derive Kepler's 3 Laws from Newton on an envelope just assuming F=ma and F=GMm/r^2). The Oberth Effect also works for an orbital insertion across the Pole, not just at the Equator. That is my question. If they had come in polar, they wouldn't need the angle correction of 76 degrees at apoapsis. Why did they come in equatorially? Is there something about eq

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by idji ( 984038 )
        My question was about Tianwen-1 which is destined for an 86 degree (near polar) orbit, but they did the insertion at 10 degrees from equatorial. This forces them to burn delta V at apoapsis (50,000 km) to change angle from 10 degrees to 86 degrees. This could have been avoided by coming into Mars initially at 86 degrees. I cannot find an answer why they are doing this.
        The Arabic Hope probe is equatorial.

        • My question was about Tianwen-1

          Ah, my error; somehow I missed that the question was about Tianwen-1, and I was answering about about Hope.

          Yes, that is an odd inclination, since their landing site at Utopia is about 25 N. I will expect that they calculated the initial highly-elliptical orbit so that the apsidal precession means that when they separate the lander, periapsis is over the desired landing site, and they wanted the orbital velocity vector to be close to parallel to Mars rotation to reduce the relative entry velocity. Hard to gu

        • They did their plane change to the near-polar orbit this week ( https://spaceflightnow.com/202... [spaceflightnow.com]), so it's clear that I guessed wrong about why they picked an initial inclination of 10.

          So, I no longer have a good explanation as to why they picked the low inclination for the capture orbit instead of capturing into the final inclination in the first place. Must be in some detail of the orbital mechanics that's beyond my ability to calculate, but I have no idea what.

    • They have a lander that will go down once done with aerobraking.
  • wow it only took 50 years for the rest of the world to catch up. Well other than the Ruskies.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Russians have had terrible luck at Mars. I'm not sure all of it is low quality-control, in part because of success elsewhere.

      For example, one orbiter and lander paired set arrived during a global dust storm, and the storm outlasted the orbiter's designed life, and may be the reason for the lander's failure. One lander perhaps was technically "successful", but it's a stretch in my book.

      US's Mariner 9 orbiter also arrived during a global dust storm, but was able to outlast it and eventually take great photos.

      • I often wonder if the Russians did land a probe on the dark side of the moon

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          Um, there really is no "dark side" of the moon, except for small areas at the poles. There is a "far side" that always faces away from Earth.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by cusco ( 717999 )

            And incidentally the Chinese are the only group that has managed to land on the Far Side so far.

  • Congrats to china. Now for the hard part. (Score:3)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @08:58PM (#61049208) Journal
    Awesome that China got the orbiter /lander there. Now, they have to put the lander on.the ground, safely. So far, only America has managed this ( well, USSR did have some 20 seconds ). But, it would be good to have them be successful.

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