China’s Secretive Mars Mission May Launch July 2020!

From their plans to launch, to how their goals
will be affected by the conditions of theplanet, and more!Join me as we explore how China’s Secretive
Mars mission may launch July 2020!Without a doubt, Mars is the “main goal” of
our current decade. We want to land there, without fail, at all
costs and to begin starting a colony there
Multiple space agencies across the world are
prepping to head there in the next few yearsincluding SpaceX and NASA. However, when it comes to China, they’re aiming
to get there this year. China is planning to launch its first solo
interplanetary mission in July, but the globalpandemic that has been locking down the world
has severely hindered and slowed activityin the country. Which obviously begs the question of, “Will
the pandemic keep China from launching forMars?”The answer is. . . not at present. Chinese authorities enacted a range of travel
and enforced quarantine measures in Januaryto combat the spread of infection. This meant many employees, including those
in the space sector, could not return to work. The reason that they, versus the rest of the
world, did their lockdown procedures earlierin the year was because they were the place
that the virus first took hold, and then spreadfrom. Thus, they’ve been able to enact procedures
to try and keep their country going throughthe lockdowns, curfews, and more. However, the situation currently looks good
for China’s Mars mission, which will sendboth an orbiter and a rover to the Red Planet. Work at facilities dedicated to manufacturing
and testing spacecraft and launch vehicleshas continued despite the impact on the workforce. “But how were they able to do that safely?What about the lockdown that you just mentioned?”Trust me, it’s not as crude or enforced as
you might think. This was all possible with the introduction
of precautions such as the use of masks, banningthe use of elevators, serving lunch in individual
boxes and disinfection of buildings. These simple steps, along with things like
curfews and lockdowns and “social distancing”have been going on for months in the country,
and reports of cases in China have slowlybeen going down. Thus, things have slowly been returning to
normal, and the Xichang Satellite Launch Centerin Sichuan province has already resumed launches. Wenchang, China’s new coastal spaceport
on Hainan Island, is currently preparing forlaunches of two new rockets. One of these will test a new crewed spacecraft
and lay preparations for a space station inEarth orbit. This is good news for China’s Mars mission,
which will launch from Wenchang in July. The huge Long March 5 rocket that will launch
the mission had a successful return to flightin December. Its previous launch in July 2017 ended in
failure and grounded the rocket for over twoyears. but things seem to be back in line for the
upcoming mission. Which is good because the time in the year
that they’re aiming to launch the rocket isone of the “orbital syncs” that closes the
distance between Earth and Mars. The rocket for the Mars mission is progressing
well, with successful engine tests carriedout in January. The mission rover underwent its space environment
testing in late January. Despite the lack of official comment on the
mission, China’s first fully homegrown expeditionto Mars appears to be on track. (The nation’s Yinghuo-1 Mars orbiter launched
with Russia’s Phobos-Grunt sample-return missionin November 2011 aboard a Russian Zenit rocket. But the Zenit never made it out of Earth orbit. )And plans for more-imminent launches are proceeding
at Xichang and Wenchang. China also seems to be sticking to plans to
launch more than 40 times in 2020. Which would be quite a feat given everything
that is going on with the world. Still, it would be a major victory for the
nation who has honestly been a bit quiet comparedto other space agencies in their desire to
go and possibly colonize Mars. But if this plan works and they’re able to
get their orbiter and their rover to Mars,it could put them very much in the race to
get to Mars first. Only time will tell on that front, and that
time will need to be well spent because thingsare still a bit touchy in the world right
now. One commercial space company in China has
been hit hard by the virus, however. Launch provider Expace has its production
centers in the city of Wuhan, which is theepicenter of the virus and has now been in
lockdown for basically 2 months. Global Times reports that Expace is unlikely
to fulfill its plans to conduct four or fivelaunches of its Kuaizhou rockets in the first
half of 2020. Expace is subordinate to CASIC, a giant state-owned
defense contractor and missile maker. Before we continue, be sure to like or dislike
the video, that way we can continue to improveand make the best possible videos for you
the viewers!Also, be sure to subscribe so that you don’t
miss ANY of our weekly videos!And obviously they aren’t the only ones who
are dealing with various issues because ofthe global pandemic. Though new cases of rgw infection in China
are dropping, the situation is changing globally. Both the European Space Agency and NASA have
implemented measures to protect their employees,with the latter recently testing telecommute
plans and issuing a mandatory work-from-homedirective for one facility, the Ames Research
Center in California’s Silicon Valley. There is no indication thus far of any high-profile
missions being hit by the virus. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told SpaceNews
that the agency is considering advice fromgovernment officials in making decisions about
NASA field centers. In addition, a number of global space conferences
have been canceled following the growing numbersof cases in places such as the United States. For example, the organizers of the annual
Lunar and Planetary Science Conference inThe Woodlands, Texas, canceled their meeting,
which was scheduled to take place last monthfrom March 16 to 20. And currently, the situation in the US is
getting more dire, with the infection andfatality rate becoming the worst in the world. Which is ironically why many are hoping the
nation adapt some of the policies that Chinadid to try and “beat” the virus so that things
can go back to normal. Returning though to the topic at hand in regards
to the China mission to Mars, they have avery simple goal with their rover and orbital. Mainly, they’re going to go and scan parts
of the area for signs of life. So in short, China is trying to be the first
nation to discover life on Mars. Which I know sounds odd because the United
States has had numerous rovers on Mars, includingone there right now still chugging along,
but the fact of the matter is the rovers thathave been on the surface so far haven’t covered
every place on Mars. The planet as a whole is still very much a
mystery in terms of history it’s
composition and more. So, by China going and trying to put their
rover in a spot that is new in terms of landings,and looking for signs of life, they are truly
“shooting for the stars”, which is fine becauseany and all scientific discoveries are welcome. Especially if they lead to big revelations
and potential big news/information about whatit would be like to live on Mars. Which again, is the goal of most space agencies
right now, as the one of the next true orbitalsyncs will be used in order to get people,
and not rovers, to Mars. Now, you might be remembering that at the
beginning of this video we noted that thiswas a “secret” China mission. What did we mean by that?Well, put simply, China hasn’t really talked
about their mission to Mars. There have been recent articles about it,
but very few have come from the Chinese governmentthemselves. The reason for this is likely political. You see, the United States is apparently also
aiming to launch an orbital or another craftto Mars around the July 2020 date just like
China. Which in a way would make this like a new
version of the “space race” that capturedthe hearts and minds of the world in the 1960’s. Albeit a much more lowkey one. So by keeping it under wraps, perhaps China
is aiming to get an edge on things over theUS, especially with the likelihood of the
US launching said craft becoming more andmore unlikely as more and more restrictions
and lockdowns are being implemented on thecountry. Thus, if China was to make it to Mars and
discover something big, that would be a hugeboost for them, and a potential major blow
for the US. And you thought that space was a universal
thing that bound us together?Nope, it can be something that is used for
political gains. Which is actually rather appropriate a segway
in regards to the colonization of Mars. Because you see, IF we are able to put people
onto the surface of Mars, and we do indeedstart to build a colony there, the political
ramifications of the act are not small. In fact, they’re global. Because think of it like this. Who would go to Mars to build the colony,
and then populate the colony when the timeis right?Never thought about that, did you?But it’s an important question, and one that
can have a bunch of fallout if not handledproperly. Because at present, it’s likely going to be
one of the two American space agencies inNASA or SpaceX that reaches Mars first. And because of that, many would feel that
it’s the United States “right” to go and colonizeMars first, just like many felt it would be
the US who colonized the moon first when thatidea was heavily being thrown around. But, if the other nations like China, Russia,
Europe and more protest that, it could causea lot of friction, and thus, lead to many
problems both physical and political in termsof making a colony on Mars. However, what if this didn’t divide the world,
but rather, united it?Imagine what would happen if (not unlike the
movie, The Martian) the United States andChina
came together in order to make the Mars colonizationwork?Bringing together all of our specialties and
gifts and technologies to make it work smoother?Elon Musk in a way is already building to
that because while SpaceX is located on Americansoil, it’s made up of some of the best and
brightest across the world, and he’s alreadypromised certain international people a ride
on some of his craft. Including a wealthy man from Japan who wants
to circle the moon. So if the world was to come together in order
to make the Mars colony real, it could bea huge thing. Granted, that’s a big IF at the present time
and in the present political climate, butit’s possible. “But would a unification be such a big thing?”
you may wonder. And the answer is a resounding, “Yes”. Mainly because each nation has their own way
of doing things, and sometimes it’s for thebetter and sometimes it’s for the worse. So, by combining ideas and methods together,
a new path might be made to make it work evenmore. For example, the Chinese are rather incredible
when it comes to the construction of buildingsand other amenities. A video once showed how they made an entire
railroad track and station in less than aweek using various techniques and workforces. If using those kinds of techniques on Mars,
we could potentially make the Mars colonyin a fraction of the time than is currently
projected. Furthermore, if the nations of the world came
together in order to make the Mars colony,that would give us multiple points of creation
and launches to go from. How so?Well at present, SpaceX has a plan to launch
multiple ships into space to get to Mars whenthe time comes, but they’ll still be restricted
during those periods. However, if China, Russia, Europe, Japan,
etc. , also launched crafts into space alongsidethem, then suddenly we have a fleet of craft
going to Mars and trying to build a colony. As the old saying goes, many hands make light
work. Now yes, we’ve kind of drifted apart from
the “secret Chinese mission to Mars”, butthis look into the future is an important
one. Everyone in the space industry is looking
to Mars as the goal for the decade and beyond. We all want to find out more about the planet
so that we can start to colonize it. And these launches, these secret missions,
and more are just the next steps towards thatgoal. But eventually, to truly make life possible
on Mars, we’ll have to come together as aplanet to make it work, else it’ll be unfeasible,
or at the very least, take a very LONG timeto happen. But for now, all we can do is watch and wait,
and see how missions like NASA’s and China’sgo. That way we’ll slowly take the next steps
towards being a race on two different worlds. Thanks for watching everyone!What did you think of this look at the upcoming
Chinese Mars mission and how it might go?Do you think that the Chinese will indeed
make it to Mars?Do you think they’ll want to colonize the
place themselves if they’re successful?Let me know in the comments below, be sure
to subscribe, and I’ll see you next time onthe channel!