China has no plan for Mars exploration at present. Therefore, experts have called for carrying it out as soon as possible.
Mars is regard as the most suitable inner planets for human settlements except Earth. It has been the first choice for global scientific and technological power’s planet exploration.
Ye Peijian, academician of Chinese Academy of Science, said the deep space exploration has two characters in the world: First, all the countries that have carried out lunar exploration will soon conduct Mars exploration. India, the country explored the Moon later than China, has already started the Mars exploration project; Second, So far in this century, more Mars explorations have been done than the moon. The world pays more attention to Mars.
However, he said, based on comprehensive consideration, China has no clear Mars exploration program at present.
Ye said in addition to solving the problem of long-distance monitoring and communication with the Mars probe 400 million kilometers away, there are still three problems.
First, long distance. It takes 46 minutes to send signals back and forth; one way trip from Earth to Mars takes 10 months; solar radiation will affect the communication at the time when the sun, Earth and a Mars probe are in one line. This phenomenon will affect communication for almost two months when the Mars probe flies on the way to Mars.
This requires that the Mars probe to have the ability of self-management and autonomous navigation.
The long distance will reduce the accuracy of orbit measurement, so new technology is needed to ensure the accuracy of the probe.
Third, developing a Mars probe needs information like the surface temperature, atmospheric environment of Mars, about which human beings know little.
Ye believed that international cooperation can fully utilize the deep space exploration resources; "But independent deep space exploration shows a country's scientific and technological strength, so we need to implement independent Mars exploration as soon as possible.”
Ye said that China possesses the key technology of lunar exploration and the premise condition of independent development of the Mars Exploration.
The moon is the main objective of China's deep space exploration. Ye said three steps of orbiting, landing and returning will be completed by 2020. Experts also demonstrated the feasibility of the first manned lunar landing in 2025.
Ye added that China lacks of long-term planning system in deep space exploration. The detection range and detection methods have to be vigorously expanded. Technical capacity and reserves of deep space exploration is still insufficient.
Edited and translated by Ma Xi, People's Daily Online
Read the Chinese version: 火星探測面臨四大難題
Source: People's Daily
