It was night in China when the Chang’e 5 mission was successfully launched. A Long March 5 rocket blasted off from the Wenchang space center and after about 36 minutes an orbiter and a lander separated from the rocket’s last stage to begin their journey to the Moon. The aim is to take samples of lunar soil and bring them back to Earth.
A little while ago NASA’s Mars 2020 mission blasted off atop an Atlas V 541 rocket from Cape Canaveral. Almost 58 minutes after launch, the spacecraft regularly separated from the rocket’s last stage went en route to the planet Mars, where is scheduled to enter its orbit in February 2021. There, the Mars Rover Perseverance and the Ingenuity helicopter will land on the red planet.
A few hours ago the Chinese mission Tianwen-1 blasted off atop a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang center in China. About 36 minutes after the launch, the spacecraft regularly separated from the rocket’s last stage and entered the trajectory that is scheduled to bring it into the planet Mars’ orbit in February 2021. There, a lander and a rover will separate from the space probe that will remain in orbit and will land on the red planet.
Two articles published in the journal “Icarus” report as many studies on Jezero Crater on Mars. Two teams of researchers used data collected by ESA’s Mars Express space probe to reconstruct various parts of the history of Jezero Crater which, with its approximately 49 kilometers in diameter, in the past used to host a lake. It dried out long ago, but left traces such as clay materials that only form in the presence of water. The diversity of minerals is also due to an ancient volcanic activity that affected the entire region. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, with the Mars Rover Perseverance, will land in Jezero Crater, if all goes well, in February 2021 to also look for possible traces of life, present or past.
NASA has announced the choice of three companies to design and develop human landing systems for the Artemis program. These are essentially plans for a lunar lander among which one will be selected to be built for the mission that, according to plans, is supposed to bring American astronauts back to the Moon by 2024. The companies selected are Blue Origin (actually the first contractor for a group called National Team), Dynetics, and SpaceX. This stage of development involves a 10-month base period during which companies and NASA will work together on the selected projects. The total contract value is $967 million.
