[FPSPACE] China and Russia Plan Mars Mission

[LARRY KLAES]

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/China_And_Russia_Plan_Mars_Mission_999.html

China And Russia Plan Mars Mission

RSA file illustation of a possible Mars lander design.

by Peter Harmsen

Beijing (AFP) March 28, 2007

China announced Wednesday it will launch a joint mission with Russia to Mars 
in 2009, marking "an important milestone" in space cooperation between the 
two countries.

A small Chinese satellite will take off on a Russian rocket, according to 
the agreement signed Monday between the China National Space Administration 
and the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Chinese space body said.

The agreement, signed during an ongoing three-day visit to Russia by Chinese 
President Hu Jintao, follows pledges by Moscow in recent months to work 
closely with Beijing on exploration of both Mars and the moon.

"This is an important milestone in Sino-Russian space cooperation," the 
Chinese space administration said as it unveiled the details of the Mars 
mission in a statement posted on its website.

According to the agreement, a small satellite developed by China would be 
launched along with "Phobos Explorer," a Russian spacecraft, probably in 
October 2009, the administration reported.

After entering Mars' orbit -- 10 to 11 months later -- the Chinese satellite 
would be detached from the spacecraft and probe the Martian space 
environment, it said.

The "Phobos Explorer," carrying equipment partly developed by the Hong Kong 
Polytechnic University, would land on Phobos, a Martian moon, and return to 
Earth with soil samples, according to the administration.

The trip to the Red Planet could be a case of Chinese money mixing with 
Russian science, according to observers.

"No one has more experience in space exploration than the Russians, and 
there's no question that their technology is far ahead of China's," said 
Tong Huiquan, an astronomer at the Nanchang Institute of Technology in 
eastern China.

"But China's economy is doing better than Russia's, and China can provide 
Russia with some economic assistance, so it's fair to say it's a win-win 
situation," he said.

The state-owned China Daily newspaper suggested the mission, which has 
previously been outlined in the Chinese media, was of scientific value, as 
it would yield information on the origins of the solar system and Earth.

Even so, many observers have seen China's revived interest in space as a 
reflection of its great power aspirations, and a source of national pride.

"Our national strength has risen," Zhang Ming, an astronomy professor at 
eastern China's Nanjing University told AFP. "It's a road that we absolutely 
must travel."

In 2003 China successfully launched astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit, 
becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United 
States to put a man in space.

It has said it hoped to launch a lunar exploration satellite some time this 
year as part of a programme that aimed to place an unmanned vehicle on the 
moon by 2012.

China's space program can be traced back to the mid-1950s, when it was 
started with Soviet help during a period of warm ties between the two giants 
of the Communist bloc.

Even China's recent foray into manned space travel has come about with some 
assistance, as Chinese astronauts are known to have received advanced 
training in Russia.

Despite the history of cooperation, Chinese researchers had few illusions 
about the extent of the knowhow that Russia would be willing to share.

"Although science knows no borders, technology does, and there's no way 
others will let you in on their most advanced technological knowhow," said 
Zhang, of Nanjing University.

"It's hard to tell what kind of cooperation the future will bring, but it 
probably will help us add to our overall technological and scientific 
abilities."


Source: Agence France-Presse