The next phase of the mission will be crucial for Tianwen-1. In 2011, China successfully launched the Yinghuo-1 Mars mission and reached parking orbit aboard a Ukrainian Zenit rocket. However, the burns designed to send it from that orbit to Mars failed, leaving it stranded over Earth. It eventually re-entered our orbit and disintegrated over the Pacific in January, 2012.

Adding to the difficulty, China is attempting its first Rover landing on Mars, something only the US has managed so far. The red planet is littered with the remains of previous failed attempts by Europe, the former USSR and the US equally. Success would thus crown China as a top nation in terms of space exploration.

Tianwen-1 has become the second of three missions to launch during the current window of Mars passing relatively close Earth. The UAE successfully launched the Arab world’s first mission to Mars just three days ago, and the US will launch its Perseverance rover to Mars on July 30th. All three missions are expected to arrive in February of 2021.

In just a few weeks’ time, the Perseverance rover and its helicopter companion might blast off to space and make their way to Mars. That doesn’t mean Curiosity will no longer be in the picture, though — in fact, the older rover has just started its mile-long summer journey towards its next destination. The Curiosity rover’s next stop is Mount Sharp’s “sulfate-bearing unit.” Since, here on Earth, sulfates usually form around water as it evaporates, the data the rover gathers could give us a clue on how the Martian climate and its prospects for life has changed over the past 3 billion years.

Curiosity has been investigating Mount Sharp’s clay-rich environment since early 2019, providing information to scientists looking into whether the former watery environment could have supported ancient microbes. The rover is now leaving that clay-rich environment behind. To be able to reach its goal, though, it has to drive around a patch of sand to avoid getting stuck.

You’ll have to wait longer than you might like to see the Perseverance rover begin its journey to Mars. NASA and United Launch Alliance have delayed blast-off for the Mars 2020 mission from July 22nd to “no earlier than” July 30th. Processing problems with the launch vehicle are to blame, NASA said. A liquid oxygen sensor line produced “off-nominal data” during a practice session, and the mission team will need extra time to evaluate what happened.

The agency has more time to launch if the 30th doesn’t work, at least. NASA had originally given itself until August 5th, but analysts have extended the window until August 15th and will determine if another extension is possible. The rover is expected to land in Mars’ Jezero crater on February 18th, 2021.

NASA is in the final stages of preparing the Perseverance rover for its trip to the red planet, which could begin anytime between July 17th and August 5th if everything goes as planned. Over the past week, the team assembled the machine, tested what needed to be tested and filled its tanks with fuel. They also attached the Mars Helicopter and its delivery system onto the rover’s belly, making sure it’s ready to fly in Martian skies and pave the way for future space unmanned aerial vehicles.

Last year, the agency proved that its space chopper can fly in Martian conditions when it tested the 4-pound vehicle in JPL’s Space Simulator. The team replicated the Martian atmosphere and gravity inside the vacuum cylinder, where the helicopter was able to hover around 2 inches above the ground. Next time the helicopter flies, it’ll be on Mars.

The awards will be relatively modest at $15,000 to $50,000, but NASA stressed that this doesn’t necessarily involve tangible products. It can also involve research that fills “knowledge gaps” or reduces risks, for instance. Proposals are due by April 24th.

The competition may not lead to a major breakthrough in NASA’s Moon and Mars expeditions. However, competitions like this have developed inflatable airlock modules and other concepts that could play important roles. M2M X-Hab could let NASA focus on the broader problems involved with traveling to and surviving in places beyond Earth.

Unlike Freefly, the DJI vehicle seems to include its own camera and stabilizer, much like the Mavic and other drones. At the same time, the suspension seems to have a lot of travel that would allow it to operate smoothly on relatively rough terrain. That would no doubt make it simple to operate and relatively lightweight. Mero’s Freefly, by contrast, is a whopping big vehicle that can support a heavy RED camera with a stabilizer.

Such camera platforms can capture pretty cool ground-level shots that a drone just can’t, so it would make sense for DJI to turn this into a product. However, take it all with some salt — while patents can be fun, they’re by no means a guarantee that a company will ever build the product shown.

Rieber said in a statement:

“The test unambiguously proved that the rover can operate under its own weight and demonstrated many of the autonomous-navigation functions for the first time. This is a major milestone for Mars 2020.”

The rover’s ground team is optimistic that the rover will perform well on Mars if it was able to steer and drive itself on our planet, which has much stronger gravity than the red planet. After it arrives on Mars in 2021, it will have much more driving to do. Its creators gave it much better cameras (with higher resolution and wide field-of-view navigation) than its predecessors, an extra computer for more more power to process images and make maps, as well as a more sophisticated auto-navigation software. Those will give Mars 2020 the power to drive an average of 650 feet a day to search for signs of life and help shed light on the planet’s climate and geology.

Today India attempted to become only the fourth nation to successfully soft-land on the surface of the Moon. That mission appears to have failed, when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost contact with its Vikram lander at an altitude of 2.1km above the lunar surface. The space agency has said only that it is analyzing available data, and that the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is still in orbit. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address the nation at about 10:30 ET.

If the mission is lost, then out of three soft-landing attempts this year it will be the second to go awry. China’s Chang’e 4 reached the far side of the Moon in January, while the privately-owned Beresheet lander from Israel crashed in April after sending back one last photograph.

NASA will whittle the competition down to 52 semi finalists per group, each representing their state or territory. The public will have a chance to vote on nine finalists in January 2020, and you’ll find out the name on February 18th, 2020, a year before the rover is expected to land on the Martian surface. There’s a long way to go before the bot has an honest-to-goodness name, then, but you’ll have an idea of who’s in contention months beforehand.

Mars 2020’s turret weighs that much, because it’s equipped with HD cameras and a rich collection of sensors and science instruments, including a percussive drill and coring mechanism. While Martian gravity is only about 38 percent of our planet’s, the ground team still made sure the arm is sturdy and strong enough to be able do its task, designing it with five electrical motors and five joints.

The rover’s arm and turret have to be in sync, because they’re working together on Mars. They’ll be in charge of scraping, analyzing and collecting samples from interesting geological structures. Any rock or soil sample they collect will be returned to Earth by a future mission.

Dave Levine, integration engineer for Mars 2020, said:

“This was our first opportunity to watch the arm and turret move in concert with each other, making sure that everything worked as advertised — nothing blocking or otherwise hindering smooth operation of the system. Standing there, watching the arm and turret go through their motions, you can’t help but marvel that the rover will be in space in less than a year from now and performing these exact movements on Mars in less than two.”

If everything goes according to plan, the rover will leave for Mars in July 2020 and will touch down in February 2021. You can watch the rover’s arm test below: