China Unveils Pictures of Mars Rover for 2020 Mission

Beijing: China on Tuesday released images of a Mars probe and rover which the country plans to send to the Red Planet within five years.

China plans to send a spacecraft to orbit around Mars, make a landing, and deploy a rover in July or August 2020, said Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect of the Mars mission at a press conference in Beijing.

The pictures of the rover were released at press conference on Tuesday. The images showed a device with six wheels, powered by four solar panels, two more than the rover sent to the moon.

The probe, for its part, will carry 13 payloads including a remote sensing camera and a ground penetrating radar which could be used to study the soil, environment, and atmosphere of Mars, as well as the planet’s physical fields, the distribution of water and ice, and its inner structure.

Weighing around 200 kilograms, it is designed to operate for three Martian months, said the chief designer of the probe.

The probe, for its part, will carry 13 payloads including a remote sensing camera and a ground penetrating radar which could be used to study the soil, environment, and atmosphere of Mars, as well as the planet’s physical fields, the distribution of water and ice, and its inner structure.

A public competition for the name and the logo of the 2020 mission was also launched Tuesday. Meanwhile, USA, Russia, EU and India had succeeded in the excution of the mission to the Red Planet, but China failed in the mission in 2011.