The Space Race II: China announces plans to put the first humans on Mars by 2033 and aims to build a base on the Red Planet
- China is eyeing 2033 for when it will send its first crewed mission to Mars
- The goal of the mission will be to build a base and extract resources from Mars
- The plan is laid out in three stages, with the first sending robots to the planet
- Robots will study the Red Planet and search out a possible base site
- Humans will then follow, who will construct the base and extract resources
- China also plans to send cargo fleets between Earth and Mars
China plans to send its first crewed mission to Mars in 2033 with the goal of constructing a base and extract resources from the Red Planet, according to a new presentation made by Wang Xiaojun, the head of China Academy of Launch Facilities Technology.
The ambitious plan will intensify a race with the US to put humans on Mars, with NASA aiming for sometime during the 2030s.
Wang’s Mars roadmap consists of three stages for colonizing the Red Planet, with the first using robots to find possible sites for the base on Mars and building systems to source resources.
Humans will then take the 239-million-mile journey through space and upon landing on the Martian world, will construct the base.
The final stage envisages fleets of spacecraft shuttling between Earth and Mars and major development of its resource.
The initial mission is set to launch in 2033, with subsequent voyages happening in 2035, 2037, 2041 and 2043, among others.
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China plans to send its first crewed mission to Mars in 2033 with the goal of constructing a base and extract resources from the Red Planet. Pictured is China’s Long March-2F rocket launching on June 17
The reason China has its missions spread out every two years, is because Earth and Mars perfectly align every two years.
China has made waves in space travel over the past years, with its most recent achieved of landing its Zhurong rover on the Red Planet in May.
The country also returned its Chang’e-5 capsule in December 2020 with a precious cargo of rocks and soil from the moon.
China is now looking to make a name for itself by putting humans on Mars – and it could do so before NASA.
The plan includes sending robots to Mars first, which will look for a base site and humans will follow in 2033 who will construct the base and extract resources from the planet
China has made waves in space travel over the past years, with its most recent achieved of landing a rover on the Red Planet in May
The country plans on using nuclear propellant in its spacecraft, which uses energy released from nuclear reactions in the form of heat and electricity.
China would have to accomplish round trips with a total flight time of ‘a few hundred days’, Wang said.
NASA has also mentioned using nuclear propellant when it sends Americans to Mars in the 2030s.
The US space agency says this system could cut the voyage time to Mars from six months to four and safely deliver human explorers by reducing their exposure to cosmic radiation.
NASA and many other countries currently use liquid hydrogen to power spacecraft.
Along with conquering Mars, China is also looking to set up a base in the south pole of the moon, in which it is working with Russia to complete.
The country also returned its Chang’e-5 capsule in December 2020 with a precious cargo of rocks and soil from the moon
Authorities from Moscow and Beijing signed a memorandum of understanding to launch the project in March to cement the partnership.
‘An international lunar science station is a complex of experimental and research facilities created on the surface and/or in orbit of the moon,’ the memorandum reads.
The base, it continued, would be ‘designed to conduct multidisciplinary and multipurpose research work.’
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