Buoyed by the success of its second lunar probe, currently orbiting Moon, China plans to upgrade its spacecraft into “smart probes” to travel to Mars.
Modifications, to enable the Mars probe to reach deep space and become “smarter”, will be carried out, Ye Peijian, the chief scientist of deep space exploration at China Academy of Space Technology said.
The Mars probe will be ‘intelligent’ enough to detect faults and correct them by itself, and able to navigate without relying on commands sent from Earth, Ye, who is in charge of drafting a technical plan for exploration of Mars told official China Daily.
The plan is yet to be approved by the Chinese government, he said.
“This self-reliance is important due to the distances involved. Mars is so far away from us - from 55 million km to 400 million km depending on its orbit - and signals need a longer time to transmit. Relying on commands from Earth will be impossible.
“A signal sent from Earth to Mars will take at least 20 minutes. When scientists detect something wrong and try to correct it, the time needed to send signals will make it impossible to correct mistakes in time,” he said.
This “smart” ability will be vital when the probe uses the planet’s gravity to enter orbit, a manoeuvre that requires the probe to adjust its speed and use the gravitational pull to ensure the correct path.
No such communication gap exists in the Moon programme, as transmissions to a lunar obiter only take a second, and scientists can accurately manoeuvre a probe to ensure its correct orbit.
Another obstacle to be overcome involves establishing a monitoring network for deep space, consisting of large-calibre antennas and communication facilities, which China is currently constructing.
Qian Weiping, chief designer of the second lunar probe Chang’e-2 mission’s tracking and control system, said in January that the network will be completed in 2016.
The network will be composed of two monitoring stations in China and one in South America, Qian said.
Upgrading work for the two monitoring stations in China’s northwestern region of Kashgar and northeastern region of Jiamusi will be completed in 2012, allowing them to be operational for lunar orbiters, Chang’e-3 and Chang’e-4, Qian said.
The station in South America will be set up in 2016, Qian said.
