Science.-China plans to send androids to Mars before a manned base

Madrid 24 years old (European press)

China’s leading rocket company has revealed a roadmap for future missions to Mars, which includes not only manned landing missions, but also base-building.

After reviewing the success of the Tianwen-1 probe — with the orbiter, rover and rover deployed in a single mission to Mars — Wang Xiaojun, director of the state-owned China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), presented the three-step plan for a future expedition to Mars at the global conference. for space exploration (GLEX 2021), the Global Times reports.

In the initial phase, or technological readiness phase, androids will be launched whose mission will include the mission of returning a sample to Mars and exploring a base site on Mars.

The next mission will be manned to Mars and a base will be built on Mars. The third stage will consist of an attempt to move a large-scale freight fleet between Earth and Mars and a large-scale development of the Red Planet.

The academy said the timetable for launching such missions would be 2033, 2035, 2037, 2041 and 2043, among others.

Nuclear propulsion is an essential option for manned exploration missions to Mars, according to the academy’s president.

Departure from a space ladder

In addition, the “Sky Ladder” system is being studied, according to Wang, as a starting point for such spaceflights, in an effort to shrink the probe and take missions to Mars. The Academy did not explain the Sky Ladder system.

Technologies like the Sky Ladder delivery system have been mentioned above, with some scientists believing it will transport humans and goods to the Moon for just four percent of the current cost.

Xinhua News Agency illustrated the process with computer graphics showing a manned space capsule or payload traveling along a carbon nanotube “ladder” to reach a space station before being re-launched from the space station.

The capsule then arrives at a second space station and travels along the second rung of the “ladder” to the Moon.

China revealed in early June that it was making plans for the future development of its space program, including exploration of asteroids and the Jovian system, collecting samples from Mars and exploring the moon’s polar region, according to the China National Space Administration.

Administration officials said China plans to launch a Mars sample return mission and a Jovian system exploration mission sometime around 2030.