Chinese "Tianwen-1" probe enters orbit around Mars

China on Wednesday placed its "

Tianwen-1

"

probe

into orbit around Mars, a first for the country, carried out nearly seven months after its launch in July.

The operation is an important step towards the main objective of this mission: to land a wheeled unmanned robot on the red planet within three or four months.

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On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates also succeeded in placing a probe in Martian orbit, a first for an Arab country, just as the Soviet Union, the United States, India and the United States had done in the past. 'Europe.

"

The braking (of the probe) was successful

" and "

its launching into Martian orbit is a success,

" said the Chinese space agency (CNSA) Wednesday in a statement.

"

Tianwen-1

" was launched on July 23 from the tropical island of Hainan, in southern China, during a firing window to reduce the distance of the Earth-Mars journey.

The United Arab Emirates and the United States had also taken advantage of this period to launch their own probes towards the red planet, a few days apart.

The Emirati, named "

Al-Amal

" ("

Hope

" in French or "

Hope

" in English) placed Tuesday in Martian orbit.

As for “

Perseverance

”, the remote-controlled robot from the American space agency (Nasa), it is due to land on Mars next week.

Since its launch, the Chinese probe has "

traveled a distance of about 475 million kilometers and is about 192 million kilometers from Earth,

" said CNSA.

Read also: China announces the "successful" launch of a rocket with a spaceship

The mission is named “

Tianwen-1

” (“

Questions to Heaven-1

”) in homage to a poem from ancient China that deals with astronomy.

The probe took its first photo of Mars last week: a black and white snapshot that showed canyons, a crater and a plain of the Red Planet.

"

Tianwen-1

" is in fact made up of three elements: an orbiter (which will remain to revolve around the star), a lander (which should land on Mars) and a remote-controlled robot.

Weighing more than 200 kilos, the latter will have to conduct analyzes of the soil, the atmosphere, take photos or even contribute to the mapping of the red planet.

"

The landing on Mars is scheduled between May and June 2021,

" said the CNSA.

Unlike Wednesday's orbit placement, the following stages of the mission "

will be much more demanding,

" said Chen Lan, analyst at

GoTaikonauts.com

, specializing in the Chinese space program.

“

Procedures and operations are more complex, as the atmosphere and surface of Mars are still very little known.

Especially for the Chinese,

”he emphasizes.

China had previously tried to ship a probe to Mars in 2011 during a joint mission with Russia.

But the attempt had collapsed and Beijing then decided to continue the adventure alone.

China is investing billions of euros in its space program, to catch up with Europeans, Russians and Americans.

The country plans to assemble a large space station, a priori by 2022, and send men to the Moon by 2030.