China Building Solar Powered Rover For Mars Mission

China's solar rover

China has announced details of a probe and solar powered rover it intends to send on its way to Mars before the end of this decade.

All going according to plan, the rover will be on the surface of the red planet by July or August in 2020. It will be transported to Mars on a Long March-5 carrier rocket to be launched from the Wenchang space center in south China’s Hainan province.

A lander containing the rover will separate from the orbiter at the end of the journey; taking the robot vehicle to the surface.

Weighing around 200 kilograms, the rover will carry 13 different scientific apparatus for measuring various environmental conditions. 4 solar panels will generate power for the robot, double the number used on China’s lunar rover, Yutu. Details of the type of energy storage to be used weren’t available at the time of writing.

The following image depicts the rover prior to disembarking from the lander with its solar panels in a folded position.

Mars solar rover and lander

The rover’s mission is expected to last for 3 months according to a statement posted on the Chinese Government’s web site.

The vehicle is yet to be named – and as with Yutu before it, that will be decided via a competition. No doubt someone will submit Rovie McRoverface as a suggestion; but that name is already in use in connection with another planetary rover project.

China’s government will be hoping for more from the rover than it saw with Yutu (Jade Rabbit). That mission started out very well, but the rover struck trouble after a month on the moon’s surface and became immobile at around the two month mark. However, it was still a great achievement for the nation and it continued to gather valuable data for a few months afterwards.

Mars is becoming a busy place. Another solar power rover, NASA’s Opportunity, is still active on the planet and celebrated its twelfth year early in 2016. As with China’s rover, Opportunity and its now silent twin Spirit, were both designed for a 3 month mission – so NASA has extracted good bang for buck from the mission.

Another upcoming mission to Mars involves NASA’s Curiosity rover. While Curiosity won’t be solar powered, it may act as a launching pad for a small solar powered helicopter drone.

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