Abstract
China’s first Mars exploration mission (HuoXing-1) has been named as ‘Tianwen-1’ meaning Heaven Inquiry. Tianwen-1 was launched on July 23, 2020. In this paper, the scientific objectives of earlier and current Mars exploration missions worldwide are reviewed, and the scientific objectives, payloads and preliminary scientific investigation plan of China’s first Mars exploration mission are introduced, and expected scientific achievements are analyzed.
Highlights
Since 1960s, more than 40 Mars exploration missions have been implemented, and some more are in progress
To achieve the scientific objectives of orbiter investigation, the Mars orbiter is equipped with seven types of payloads including moderate resolution imaging camera, high resolution imaging camera, mars orbiter scientific investigation radar, Mars mineralogical spectrometer, Mars orbiter magnetometer, Mars ion and neutral particle analyzer and Mars energetic particles analyzer (Table 2, Fig. 4)
Focusing on the five scientific objectives of China’s first Mars exploration mission, the orbiter is equipped with 7 instruments and the rover is equipped with 6 instruments for scientific exploration
Summary
As the neighbor of the Earth, the Mars evolution is of significant importance for understanding the history and future evolution of the Earth. Since 1960s, more than 40 Mars exploration missions have been implemented, and some more are in progress. Scientific objectives in the past 20 years (Table 1) provide reference for China’s Mars exploration. The scientific objectives and results of recent Mars missions are focused on the following aspects:. (1) Mars atmosphere characteristics and climate change: to examine the structure and composition of Mars neutral atmosphere, meteorology, climate characteristics and changes; to search for evidence on past climate change, and to study the evolution history and future trends of Mars meteorology and climate (Gómez-Elvira et al 2012; Mahaffy et al 2013; Barlow 2014; Jakosky et al 2015). The Huoxing-1 (HX-1) / Tianwen-1 (TW-1) mission to Mars Edited by Chunlai Li and Jianjun Liu
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