It was the summer of 1969, and I had a 3-month break, with nothing serious to do. 1969 was seemingly an in-between year, from 1968 and the anti-establishment movements to the start of the 1970s with everything that transpired in that decade. But, It actually was not, because we had the worsening of the Vietnam war, but we also had the Woodstock festival and the landing on the moon. Aah, what a summer, it was then, 1969.
Why do I suddenly bring up 1969 and the landing on the moon, you ask? Well, a bit by nostalgia, and a bit because of the recent Mars events. As a child, the US-Soviet space race captured my imagination and that of many people in the world. Yes, these two superpowers battled it out directly or indirectly in the cold war, but they also challenged each other in space, in sports, and in arts and entertainment. But the space race was the ultimate, the final frontier, until we hit 1972 and chess became the thing with Spassky vs Fischer.
So I remember as a child counting the days to Apollo 11 landing and everything else that went with it: the heroes, the early victims (Apollo 1), the Soviet Lunokhod rovers, and the amazing Apollo 13 saga, albeit a few months later. I did watch the landing live on TV and many times afterwards.
Now fast-forward to today and the race to Mars. The Soviet Union does not exist anymore, but Russia does, and it has taken over most of the space challenges. Even though the Russians have done quite well in reliability and Space living, the US is the clear leader, even the sole nation, on Mars landing. Europeans have had a couple of failures, the Soviets/Russians a failure or two (early in the race to Mars), and a few other nations have just sent a craft circling Mars. The other day, the Americans even managed to fly a helicopter on the surface of Mars. So is the game over? Has America won? Well maybe, maybe not. China may be up for the challenge though.
US recently landed Perseverance (a high-tech gem) on Mars and has managed to have a helicopter (Ingenuity) to fly on the surface of the planet. Meanwhile, in February, China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft (carrying sophisticated instruments, a lander, and a rover) entered the Mars orbit, with the plan for a Mars landing in May. So we would know by the end of May if we have at least a 2-way race for Mars landing or just a 1-nation show. You probably know all about the US Perseverance program, but possibly less about China’s Tianwen-1. So below, you will find a brief article on it.
So regardless of geopolitics and diplomatic rows, we all should cross our fingers for the Chinese craft to land and succeed, because we could then have a real imagination capturing race to the red planet.
Brief article on China's Tianwen-1 craft to Mars
https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/tianwen-1
Paris, April 21, 2021
Zeejay