Hello Space Exploration Enthusiasts!
This July is going to be super exciting month for space exploration. As Mars is going to be in ideal position relative to Earth to reach it with our rockets, there are several mission launches to Mars planned this month. Let's recapitulate it, so you'll not miss any one of them:
July, 14th: Hope Mars Mission or Emirates Mars Mission. The result of co-operation between the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre of United Arab Emirates and 3 US universities (the University of Colorado Boulder, Arizona State University and the University of California, Berkeley). The mission payload is an orbiter spacecraft called Hope, which aims to study Mars atmosphere and its weather cycles. The mission will be launched by Japanese H-IIA rocket. Nice co-operation and glad to see another country to actively participate in deep space exploration!
July, 23rd: Tianwen-1 mission. It is the first Chinese attempt to soft-land on Mars, with lander and also rover as mission payloads. Apart of them, the mission contains also orbiter spacecraft which will circle around the Mars and apart of doing scientific studies will serve also as data relay to communicate with the Earth. The mission will be launched by the Chinese most powerful rocket: Long March 5. Very ambitious!
July, 30th: NASA's Mars 2020 mission with Perseverance rover on board with Ingenuity small robotic helicopter (yeah!) as its side-kick, which will scout surrounding area for the best targets to study! Just WOW! The goal of the mission is to search for possible biosignatures on Mars, and to collect samples to one place which will be retrieved later by future Mars samples return mission. The mission will be launched by now classic, reliable and proven Atlas V rocket. Can't wait to see the first helicopter in action on different planet!
So, are you excited? Me totally! And of course, if you want to know more about not just Mars, but also whole Solar System and our Universe in general, hey, here's the Universe Quiz to play and to prove and boost your astronomy and space exploration knowledge.
See you at the post missions recap!
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(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)