Lebanon is still in a state of shock after this week's devastating explosion in the port of Beirut. At least 137 people were killed while a further 5,000 were injured when 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in a blast that was reportedly felt as far away as Cyprus. It quickly came clear from initial videos of the incident that this was no ordinary explosion and the damage it caused to the port is catastrophic. Just how powerful was it?
Using videos and photographs that emerged in the aftermath of the incident, a team from the University of Sheffield estimated the strength of the explosion to be around 1.5 kilotons in TNT equivalent. That would make it one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history at around one tenth the strength of the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese City of Hiroshima. It is far more powerful than any conventional military weapon.
The GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (also known as "the mother of all bombs) is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in military use. Designed to be dropped from a C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, its kiloton yield is 0.011 by comparison. Its use made headlines in 2017 when it was dropped on an ISIS tunnel complex in the Achin District of Afghanistan.
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This chart shows the estimated kiloton yield of selected explosions/weapons.
The blast registered as a magnitude 3.3 earthquake , and the effects of the explosion were felt miles away from the blast site. Experts told Insider the blast most likely had an explosive yield of several hundred tons of TNT equivalent.
As Japan marks the 75th anniversary of the nuclear bomb attack, a look at how it happened, the devastation it wrought
On 6 August 1945 at 8.15 am Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber plane called Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. When the bomb exploded in Hiroshima, the city was struck by a flash of blinding light, then a giant cloud shaped like a mushroom rose into the sky.
The blast flattened buildings within a 2.5 km radius of the bomb.
There were 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped, but only 28,000 remained after the explosion.
Thousands and thousands of people were killed. Many were badly injured
The devastation was unlike anything in the history of warfare. The city was immediately flattened.
Around 80,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 were injured.
'Seared to death': The atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima
As Japan marks the 75th anniversary of the nuclear bomb attack, a look at how it happened, the devastation it wrought.
13 hours ago
The city that survived the world's first atomic bombing marked the 75th anniversary of the attack in Japan on Thursday, with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui urging nations to reject self-centered nationalism and commit more seriously to nuclear disarmament.
In a ceremony sharply downsized due to the coronavirus pandemic, survivors, their relatives, and officials stood for a moment of silence as cicadas shrilled in the heavy summer heat and the Peace Bell rang out over Peace Park.
"On August 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb destroyed our city. Rumor at the time had it that 'nothing will grow here for 75 years'," Matsui said at the memorial ceremony.
"And yet, Hiroshima recovered, becoming a symbol of peace."
The mayor went on to urge Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government to sign the international treaty banning nuclear weapons and called on the world to unite in the face of global threats.
"When the 1918 flu pandemic attacked a century ago, it took tens of millions of lives and terrorized the world because nations fighting World War I were unable to meet the threat together," Matsui said.
"A subsequent surge in nationalism led to World War II and the atomic bombings. We must never allow this painful past to repeat itself. Civil society must reject self-centered nationalism and unite against all threats."
Below we take a look at the events that devastated Hiroshima and ushered in the era of weapons of mass destruction.
What happened in Hiroshima?
On August 6, 1945, at about 8:15 am local time, the US aircraft Enola Gay dropped an untested uranium-235 gun-assembly bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" over Hiroshima.
The destruction was unlike anything in the history of warfare.
Hiroshima was immediately flattened. The resulting explosion killed 70,000 people instantly; by December 1945, the death toll had risen to some 140,000.
"The impact of the bomb was so terrific that practically all living things - human and animal - were literally seared to death by the tremendous heat and pressure set up by the blast," Tokyo radio said in the aftermath of the explosion, according to a report by The Guardian in August 1945.
"All the dead and injured were burned beyond recognition. Those outdoors were burned to death, while those indoors were killed by the indescribable pressure and heat."
But the damage did not end there. The radiation released from the explosion kept causing suffering.
Thousands more died from their injuries, radiation sickness, and cancer in the years that followed, bringing the toll closer to 200,000, according to the Department of Energy's history of the Manhattan Project.
Three days later a second nuclear weapon was dropped on Nagasaki. Two weeks later Japan surrendered, ending World War Two.
Why did the US drop the bomb?
Japan was a fierce enemy of the US and its allies, Britain, China, and the Soviet Union during World War II.
By 1945, the allies had turned the tide of the war and pushed the Japanese forces back from many locations.
The Japanese had publicly stated their intent to fight to the bitter end and were using tactics such as kamikaze attacks, suicide attacks by Japanese fighter pilots against US warships.
In July 1945, US President Harry Truman and allies demanded the "immediate and unconditional"surrender of Japan, but Japan did not issue a clear response.
Shortly after, the US attacked Hiroshima, chosen because it was seen as a "strategically sound" target based on calculations around weather conditions, aircraft range, military impact, and the impact on "enemy morale".
Early on Thursday, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the mayor of Hiroshima joined bomb survivors and descendants in the city's Peace Park.
The park is usually packed with thousands of people for the anniversary, But attendance was significantly reduced this year, with chairs spaced apart and most attendees wearing masks.
A moment's silence was held at 08:15, the exact time the bomb was dropped on the city.
"On August 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb destroyed our city. Rumor at the time had it that 'nothing will grow here for 75 years,'" Mayor Kazumi Matsui said. "And yet, Hiroshima recovered, becoming a symbol of peace."
The Lebanese explosion 4th of this month 2020 or should we say 04/08/2020. They were an explosion that rocked the city of Beirut in Lebanese. The explosion was caused by a firework explosion that ignited 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate which has been at the port since 6 years ago. The explosion has been called the 3rd most devastating manmade explosion yielding a force of 1.9 kilotons the impact of the shockwave was heard on the island of Cyprus and the first as been the Hiroshima bombing which released a TNT of 30 kilotons.
the explosion killed approx over 200 people injured over 5000 and displaced over 300,000 of there homes to watch the video of the explosion click on the link below
.https://youtu.be/tDt8eOSq_1c
All we need is your prayers for them the Lebanese red cross said that mire is still missing
The USA has retained it's position as been the world largest economy since 1871.
USA Is by far has the strongest military in the world. But due to the rapid growth in technology they is now a new rival which is trying to outrun USA in its might. And that has sparked fear around the globe because this brings a new arms race and a secret cold war between the two great nation's because of the great fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990's that brought a great fall to the Russian economy.
If the china becomes a world super power Europe will fall, Japan might be destroyed because most Chinese as not forgiven what Japan did to them during world war 2, Taiwan will be invaded.taiwan is an island in East china and it has been an independent country but the Chinese government Doesn't recognize it as a country and one of Taiwan military Allie's is USA and if china in its present state tries to invade Taiwan the USA has agreed to support Taiwan, And lastly America might fall this are many things china might do.
Let take alook at both Nation starting with economy then to military.
Total GDP (nominal):.$22.3 trillion $15.2 trillion.
Currency : dollars $. Yaun ¥
Now to the military aspect.
USA. China
Annual military budget:
$664 billion 2.4% of USA GDP. China is $147 billion 2.1% of its GDP.
Active military personnel:
As 1,400,000 personnel's . 2,335,000 personnel's.
Reserve personal 811,000. 8,000,000.
Tanks: 8,484. 9,000.
Self propelled gun:1,934. 1,730
Towed Artillery:. 1,934
. 6,000.
Rocket artillery:. 1,700. 1900.
Armoured fighting vechicle:
41,000. 4,788.
Air Force
Aircraft:. 13,444. 2,943.
Fighter jet: 1170 457.
Naval power:
Aircraft carrier: 19. 1.
Submarine:. 75. 68.
Frigates:. 6. 48.
Destroyer:. 62. 32.
Corvettes. 0. 26.
Mine warfare Craft:. 11. 4.
Patrol craft:. 13. 138.
Nuclear warheads:
5,100 nuke. 260 nukes.
You know that oil is needed for military expendition.
China consume 12 million barrels a day and produce 4.3 million barrels a day and has a reserve of 20 billion.while the USA consume. 19 million barrels a day and Produces 9 million barrels a day and has a reserve of 35 billion barrels.
USA has 54 Allie's and 3 are based closely with three nation closer to china which are the Taiwan,south korea and Japan while china has only 5 Allie's and military experience has always help in a military war china has not fought any current battle since 1974 while USA has been in current battle and cyber and space security has been implemented by the two country because of today's digital age
In that aspect china is far more advanced than the USA.
USA military service.
18 years of age (17 years of age with parental consent) for male and female voluntary service; no conscription; maximum enlistment age 42 (Army), 27 (Air Force), 34 (Navy), 28 (Marines); service obligation 8 years, including 2-5 years active duty (Army), 2 years active (Navy), 4 years active (Air Force, Marines); DoD is eliminating prohibitions restricting women from assignments in units smaller than brigades or near combat units.
China
18-24 years of age for selective compulsory military service, with a 2-year service obligation; no minimum age for voluntary service (all officers are volunteers); 18-19 years of age for women high school graduates who meet requirements for specific military jobs; a recent military decision allows women in combat roles.
To get more of this post kindly follow us and reshare and comment and you can check out our blog for educational post: ayomidehermes.blogspot.com. And Instagram page: ayomidehermes.
1. Mars and Earth have approximately the same landmass.Even though Mars has only 15% of the Earth’s volume and just over 10% of the Earth’s mass, around two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Martian surface gravity is only 37% of the Earth’s (meaning you could leap nearly three times higher on Mars).
2 .Only 18 missions to Mars have been successful.
As of September 2014 there have been 40 missions to Mars, including orbiters, landers and rovers but not counting flybys. The most recent arrivals include the Mars Curiosity mission in 2012, the MAVEN mission, which arrived on September 22, 2014, followed by the Indian Space Research Organization’s MOM Mangalyaan orbiter, which arrived on September 24, 2014. The next missions to arrive will be the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, comprising an orbiter, lander, and a rover, followed by NASA’s InSight robotic lander mission, slated for launch in March 2016 and a planned arrival in September, 2016.
3 .The Red Planet is home to both the highest mountain and the deepest, longest valley in the solar system. Olympus Mons is roughly 17 miles (27 kilometers) high, about three times as tall as Mount Everest, while the Valles Marineris system of valleys — named after the Mariner 9 probe that discovered it in 1971 — reaches as deep as 6 miles (10 km) and runs east-west for roughly 2,500 miles (4,000 km), about one-fifth of the distance around Mars and close to the width of Australia.
4 . Mars also has the largest volcanoes in the solar system, Olympus Mons being one of them. The massive volcano, which is about 370 miles (600 km) in diameter, is wide enough to cover the state of New Mexico. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano, with slopes that rise gradually like those of Hawaiian volcanoes, and was created by eruptions of lavas that flowed for long distances before solidifying. Mars also has many other kinds of volcanic landforms, from small, steep-sided cones to enormous plains coated in hardened lava. Some minor eruptions might still occur on the planet.
5 .Mars is much colder than Earth, in large part due to its greater distance from the sun. The average temperature is about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius), although it can vary from minus 195 F (minus 125 C) near the poles during the winter to as much as 70 F (20 C) at midday near the equator.
The carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere of Mars is also about 100 times less dense than Earth's on average, but it is nevertheless thick enough to support weather, clouds and winds. The density of the atmosphere varies seasonally, as winter forces carbon dioxide to freeze out of the Martian air. In the ancient past, the atmosphere was likely thicker and able to support water flowing on its surface. Over time, lighter molecules in the Martian atmosphere escaped under pressure from the solar wind, which affected the atmosphere because Mars does not have a global magnetic field.
Perihelion (closest): 128,400,000 miles (206,600,000 km). By comparison: 1.404 times that of Earth.
Aphelion (farthest): 154,900,000 miles (249,200,000 km). By comparison: 1.638 times that of Earth.
6 .The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall over the course of a week in 1877. Hall had almost given up his search for a moon of Mars, but his wife, Angelina, urged him on. He discovered Deimos the next night, and Phobos six days after that. He named the moons after the sons of the Greek war god Ares — Phobos means "fear," while Deimos means "rout."
Both Phobos and Deimos are apparently made of carbon-rich rock mixed with ice and are covered in dust and loose rocks. They are tiny next to Earth's moon, and are irregularly shaped, since they lack enough gravity to pull themselves into a more circular form. The widest Phobos gets is about 17 miles (27 km), and the widest Deimos gets is roughly 9 miles (15 km).
Both moons are pockmarked with craters from meteor impacts. The surface of Phobos also possesses an intricate pattern of grooves, which may be cracks that formed after the impact created the moon's largest crater — a hole about 6 miles (10 km) wide, or nearly half the width of Phobos. They always show the same face to Mars, just as our moon does to Earth.
It remains uncertain how Phobos and Deimos were born. They may have been asteroids captured by Mars' gravitational pull, or they may have been formed in orbit around Mars the same time the planet came into existence. Ultraviolet light reflected from Phobos provides strong evidence that the moon is a captured asteroid ,according to astronomers at the University of Padova in Italy.
Phobos is gradually spiraling toward Mars, drawing about 6 feet (1.8 meters) closer to the Red Planet each century. Within 50 million years, Phobos will either smash into Mars or break up and form a ring of debris around the planet.
1. Mars and Earth have approximately the same landmass.Even though Mars has only 15% of the Earth’s volume and just over 10% of the Earth’s mass, around two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Martian surface gravity is only 37% of the Earth’s (meaning you could leap nearly three times higher on Mars).
2 .Only 18 missions to Mars have been successful.
As of September 2014 there have been 40 missions to Mars, including orbiters, landers and rovers but not counting flybys. The most recent arrivals include the Mars Curiosity mission in 2012, the MAVEN mission, which arrived on September 22, 2014, followed by the Indian Space Research Organization’s MOM Mangalyaan orbiter, which arrived on September 24, 2014. The next missions to arrive will be the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, comprising an orbiter, lander, and a rover, followed by NASA’s InSight robotic lander mission, slated for launch in March 2016 and a planned arrival in September, 2016.
3 .The Red Planet is home to both the highest mountain and the deepest, longest valley in the solar system.
Olympus Mons is roughly 17 miles (27 kilometers) high, about three times as tall as Mount Everest, while the Valles Marineris system of valleys — named after the Mariner 9 probe that discovered it in 1971 — reaches as deep as 6 miles (10 km) and runs east-west for roughly 2,500 miles (4,000 km), about one-fifth of the distance around Mars and close to the width of Australia.
4 . Mars also has the largest volcanoes in the solar system, Olympus Mons being one of them. The massive volcano, which is about 370 miles (600 km) in diameter, is wide enough to cover the state of New Mexico. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano, with slopes that rise gradually like those of Hawaiian volcanoes, and was created by eruptions of lavas that flowed for long distances before solidifying. Mars also has many other kinds of volcanic landforms, from small, steep-sided cones to enormous plains coated in hardened lava. Some minor eruptions might still occur on the planet.
5 .Mars is much colder than Earth, in large part due to its greater distance from the sun. The average temperature is about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius), although it can vary from minus 195 F (minus 125 C) near the poles during the winter to as much as 70 F (20 C) at midday near the equator.
The carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere of Mars is also about 100 times less dense than Earth's on average, but it is nevertheless thick enough to support weather, clouds and winds. The density of the atmosphere varies seasonally, as winter forces carbon dioxide to freeze out of the Martian air. In the ancient past, the atmosphere was likely thicker and able to support water flowing on its surface. Over time, lighter molecules in the Martian atmosphere escaped under pressure from the solar wind, which affected the atmosphere because Mars does not have a global magnetic field.
Perihelion (closest): 128,400,000 miles (206,600,000 km). By comparison: 1.404 times that of Earth.
Aphelion (farthest): 154,900,000 miles (249,200,000 km). By comparison: 1.638 times that of Earth.
6 .The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall over the course of a week in 1877. Hall had almost given up his search for a moon of Mars, but his wife, Angelina, urged him on. He discovered Deimos the next night, and Phobos six days after that. He named the moons after the sons of the Greek war god Ares — Phobos means "fear," while Deimos means "rout."
Both Phobos and Deimos are apparently made of carbon-rich rock mixed with ice and are covered in dust and loose rocks. They are tiny next to Earth's moon, and are irregularly shaped, since they lack enough gravity to pull themselves into a more circular form. The widest Phobos gets is about 17 miles (27 km), and the widest Deimos gets is roughly 9 miles (15 km).
Both moons are pockmarked with craters from meteor impacts. The surface of Phobos also possesses an intricate pattern of grooves, which may be cracks that formed after the impact created the moon's largest crater — a hole about 6 miles (10 km) wide, or nearly half the width of Phobos. They always show the same face to Mars, just as our moon does to Earth.
It remains uncertain how Phobos and Deimos were born. They may have been asteroids captured by Mars' gravitational pull, or they may have been formed in orbit around Mars the same time the planet came into existence. Ultraviolet light reflected from Phobos provides strong evidence that the moon is a captured asteroid ,according to astronomers at the University of Padova in Italy.
Phobos is gradually spiraling toward Mars, drawing about 6 feet (1.8 meters) closer to the Red Planet each century. Within 50 million years, Phobos will either smash into Mars or break up and form a ring of debris around the planet.
7 .Research & exploration
The first person to watch Mars with a telescope was Galileo Galilei. In the century following, astronomers discovered the planet's polar ice caps. In the 19th and 20th centuries, researchers believed they saw a network of long, straight canals on Mars, that hinted at possible civilization, although later these proved to be mistaken interpretations of dark regions they saw.
A number of martian rocks have fallen to the surface of Earth over the eons, providing scientists a rare opportunity to study Martian rocks without having to leave our planet. One of the most controversial finds was Allan Hills 84001 (ALH 84001) — a Martian meteorite that in 1996, was said to contain shapes reminiscent of small fossils. The find garnered a lot of media attention at the time, but subsequent studies dismissed the idea.The debate was stillongoingin 2016, the 20th anniversary of the announcement. In 2018, a separate meteorite study found that organic molecules — the building blocks of life, although not necessarily life itself —could have formed on Marsthrough battery-like chemical reactions.
Robotic spacecraft began observing Mars in the 1960s, with the United States launching Mariner 4in 1964 and Mariners 6 and 7 in 1969. The missions revealed Mars to be a barren world, without any signs of the life or civilizations people had imagined there. In 1971, Mariner 9 orbited Mars, mapping about 80 percent of the planet and discovering its volcanoes and canyons.
The Soviet Union also launched numerous spacecraft in the 1960s and early 1970s, but most of those missions failed. Mars 2 (1971) and Mars 3 (1971) operated successfully, but were unable to map the surface due to dust storms. NASA's Viking 1 lander touched down on the surface of Mars in 1976, the first successful landing on the Red Planet. The lander took the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface but found no strong evidence for life.
The next two craft to successfully reach Mars were the Mars Pathfinder, a lander, and Mars Global Surveyor, an orbiter, both launched in 1996. A small robot onboard Pathfinder named Sojourner — the first wheeled rover to explore the surface of another planet — ventured over the planet's surface analyzing rocks.
In 2001, the NASA launched the Mars Odyssey probe, which discovered vast amounts of water ice beneath the Martian surface, mostly in the upper 3 feet (1 meter). It remains uncertain whether more water lies underneath, since the probe cannot see water any deeper.
Artist's rendition of the InSight lander on the surface of Mars.(Image credit: NASA)
In 2003, Mars passed closer to Earth than anytime in that past 60,000 years. That same year, NASA launched two rovers, nicknamed Spirit and Opportunity, which explored different regions of the Martian surface. Both rovers found signs that water once flowed on the planet's surface.
In 2008, NASA sent another mission, Phoenix, to land in the northern plains of Mars and search for water whichit succeeded in doing.
In 2011, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission sent the Mars Curiosityrover, to investigate Martian rocks and determine the geologic processes that created them. Among the mission's findings was the first meteorite on the surface of the Red Planet. The rover has foundcomplex organic molecules on the surface, as well as seasonal fluctuations in methane concentrations in the atmosphere.
In September 2014, India's Mars Orbiter Mission also reached the Red Planet, making it the fourth nation to successfully enter orbit around Mars.
In November 2018, NASA sent a stationary lander calledMars InSightto the surface. InSight will examine the planet's geologic activity by burrowing a probe underground.
NASA plans to launch a successor rover mission to Curiosity, called Mars 2020. This mission will search for ancient signs of life and, depending on how promising its samples look, it may "cache" the results in safe spots on the Red Planet for a future rover to pick up.
ESA is working on its own ExoMars rover that should also launch in 2020, and will include a drill to go deep into the Red Planet, collecting soil samples from about 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep.
8 .Lost missions
Mars is far from an easy planet to reach. NASA, Russia, the European Space Agency, China, Japan and the Soviet Union collectively lost many spacecraft in their quest to explore the Red Planet. Notable examples include:
1992 — NASA's Mars Observer
1996 — Russia's Mars 96
1998 — NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter, Japan's Nozomi
1999 — NASA's Mars Polar Lander
2003 — ESA's Beagle 2 lander
2011 — Russia's Fobus-Grunt mission to Phobos with the Chinese Yinghuo-1 orbiter
2016 — ESA's Schiaparelli test lander
8 .Human missions to come
Robots aren't the only ones getting a ticket to Mars. A workshop group of scientists from government agencies, academia and industry have determined that a NASA-led manned mission to Mars should be possible by the 2030s. However, in late 2017, the Trump administrationdirected NASA to send people back to the moonbefore going to Mars. NASA is now more focused on a concept called the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway that would be a moon-based space station and headquarters for further space exploration.
Robotic missions to the Red Planet have seen much success in the past few decades, but it remains a considerable challenge to get people to Mars. With current rocket technology, it would take several months for people to travel to Mars, and that means they would live for several months in microgravity, which hasdevastating effects on the human body. Performing activities in the moderate gravity on Mars could prove extremely difficult after many months in microgravity. Research on the effects of microgravity continues on the International Space Station.
NASA isn't the only one with Martian astronaut hopefuls. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has outlinedmultiple concepts to bring people to Mars. In November 2018,Musk rebranded SpaceX's future "Big Falcon Rocket" to "Starship". Other nations, including China and Russia, have also announced their goals for sending humans to Mars.
Three missions are poised to launch toward the Red Planet this month, including NASA's car-sized Perseverance rover, which will hunt for signs of ancient Mars life and cache samples for future return to Earth.
The action will start next week, if all goes according to plan. The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) first-ever interplanetary effort, the Hope Mars mission, also known as the Emirates Mars Mission, is scheduled to launch on July 14.he Hope orbiter will reach Mars in early 2021, then use three science instruments to study the Red Planet's atmosphere, weather and climate from above. The probe's observations should help researchers better understand Mars' long-ago transition from a relatively warm and wet world to the cold, desert planet we know today, mission team members have said. That transition was driven by the stripping of Mars' once-thick atmosphere by the solar wind, the stream of charged particles flowing from the sun.
The Hope spacecraft was built by the UAE's Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, in partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder, Arizona State University and the University of California Berkeley. And the project is breaking ground for more than just the UAE: Hope is the first planetary science mission led by an Arab-Islamic nation.
China will follow with a landmark launch of its own a little more than a week after Hope takes flight. On July 23, China's first-ever fully homegrown Mars mission, known as Tianwen-1, is scheduled to lift off atop a Long March 5 rocket. (China put a piggyback orbiter called Yinghuo-1 aboard Russia's Mars mission Fobos-Grunt, which got stuck in Earth orbit shortly after its November 2011 launch.)
Tianwen-1 is an ambitious project that consists of an orbiter, a lander and a 530-lb. (240 kilograms) rover that's the size of a small golf cart. Chinese officials have remained characteristically tight-lipped about the mission — they still haven't publicly announced a final landing site for the lander/rover pair, for example — but these robots' scientific gear suggests that Tianwen-1 will conduct a broad reconnaissance of the Martian environment.
The orbiter sports six instruments, including a high-resolution camera, a magnetometer and a mineral spectrometer, which will allow mission team members to determine the composition of surface rocks. The rover also has six instruments, including a weather station, a magnetic field detector and a ground-penetrating radar, which could spot subsurface water ice down to a depth of about 330 feet (100 meters).
If Tianwen-1 is successful, China will become just the third nation, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to land a spacecraft on Mars. And that epic touchdown may lead the way to even bigger things in the near future: Chinese space officials have voiced a desire to mount a Mars sample-return mission, which could perhaps launch as early as 2030.
The United States and Europe also plan to bring pristine Red Planet material to Earth, and that project will really get up and running with Perseverance's launch. The 2,315-lb. (1,050 kg) rover, the centerpiece of NASA's $2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission, is scheduled to lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on July 30 and land inside Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.
Perseverance will use its seven onboard instruments to characterize the geology of Jezero and search for signs of ancient Mars life in the rocks of the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) crater, which hosted a lake and a river delta billions of years ago.
The six-wheeled robot will also collect and cache several dozen samples from particularly promising study sites. This material will be recovered and brought to Earth, perhaps as early as 2031, in a campaign conducted by NASA and the European Space Agency. Scientists in labs around the world will then scrutinize the Mars material in great detail, looking for signs of life and clues about the planet's evolutionary history.
Mars 2020 also aims to lay groundwork for crewed missions to the Red Planet, the first of which NASA wants to launch in the 2030s. For instance, like the Tianwen-1 rover, Perseverance is outfitted with ice-hunting ground-penetrating radar. And another of the NASA rover's instruments, the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE), will generate oxygen from the thin Martian atmosphere, which is 95% carbon dioxide by volume. ("ISRU" stands for "in situ resource utilization." NASA is big on acronyms, in case you hadn't noticed.)
MOXIE isn't Mars 2020's only technology demonstration. A 4-lb. (1.8 kg) helicopter called Ingenuitywill journey to the Red Planet on Perseverance's belly. After touchdown, Ingenuity will drop free and make a few short test flights in the Martian sky — the first-ever aerial exploration of a world beyond Earth.
If Ingenuity is successful, future Mars missions could commonly incorporate helicopters, NASA officials have said. Such rotorcraft could serve a variety of purposes, from scouting out promising study sites for rovers to exploring hard-to-reach areas such as caves or steep-walled craters.
Hope, Tianwen-1 and Mars 2020 all must get off the ground this summer or be put in storage for more than two years, because Earth and Mars align favorably for planetary missions just once every 26 months. And the current launch window isn't open for very long; Mars 2020's closes on Aug. 15, NASA officials have said. (The mission's window originally opened on July 17, but several technical issues have pushed things back to July 30.)
One Mars mission hoping to launch this year has already been packed away until 2022. The life-hunting rover Rosalind Franklin, part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, encountered parachute problems and several other issues that could not be resolved in time for a 2020 liftoff.
Olympus Mons
