Tianwen-1 is China’s second overall Mars mission and the first that will be launched domestically by a Chinese rocket.

Translating to “Heavenly Questions,” Tianwen-1 will see an orbiter, lander, and rover sent to Mars during the short, two-week launch window China has this year.

Together, the orbiter, lander, and rover will search for signs of current and past Martian life and assess the planet’s overall environment for future robotic and human missions.

The lander is built to last at least 90 Martian days, called Sols, once on the surface. The orbiter will be able to function for more than one Earth year.

The combined craft will spend seven months cruising through the space between Earth and Mars before arriving in orbit no earlier than February 11th and not later than February 24th, 2021 -- depending on what day the mission launches.

Two months of orbit-only activations and checkouts will follow before the lander and rover attempt landing on April 23rd, 2021, at one of two locations on Utopia Planitia, Mars.

This is China’s second Mars mission after the failed Fobos-Grunt joint-flight with Russia in 2011 which crashed back into Earth after a launch failure.

Tianwen-1 was officially approved as a solitary Mars effort by the Chinese government in 2016.

A total of 12 scientific instruments will be carried to Mars, six on the orbiter and six on the rover.

A primary task of the mission is to search for the biological indicators of past and present life on Mars and to create geographic maps of Mars’ surface.

After landing in Utopia Planitia, the rover will try to determine the amount of underground water ice present in this location, which NASA estimates to be as much as the total volume of water in Lake Superior in the U.S. and Canada.

The orbiter will also examine the Martian atmosphere and how portions of it are still stripped away by the solar wind, the constant stream of energized particles that flow outward from the Sun.

All three parts of the mission will also serve as technology demonstrations for future China Mars missions.

Chang Zheng 5 (and 5B)

This is China's heavy lift rocket. Developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the Chang Zheng 5 can take:

• 25,000 kg to Low Earth Orbit
• 14,000 kg to Geostationary Transfer Orbit
• 8,200 kg to the Moon.

The rocket's engineers undertook 20 years of study before the program was approved by the Chinese government in 2007.

It flew for the first time in 2016, but its first two missions were less than perfect. The first flight dropped the payload off in a wrong - but "workable" - orbit. The second launch failed.

After this, the rocket's booster engines were redesigned. The third flight was a success, paving the way for a host of critical missions.

In 2020, the Chang Zheng 5 launched China's Chang'e 5 lunar sample return mission, a new crewed spacecraft, and the Tianwen-1 mission to Mars.

The rocket is also tasked with launching China's multi-module space station, for which it uses the Chang Zheng 5B variant that replaces the second stage with the payload (the station module) being launched instead.

Wenchang is a former suborbital test site located in Wenchang, Hainan, China.

It is China's southernmost launch site. Located on an island, rocket stages are delivered via ship.

Construction of the orbital launch pads was approved on September 27th, 2007, and the launch site was completed in October 2014 with the first orbital launch taking place on June 25th, 2016.

The site has two active launch pads, with a third planned. LC-1 is used to launch the Chang Zheng 5 rocket while LC-2 is used for the Chang Zheng 7 and 8 rocket families.

Operations at Wenchang are managed by the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Image: CMSA

Utopia Planitia is the largest impact basin ever discovered in the solar system.

Stretching 3,300 km, the location has been visited once before by NASA’s Viking 2 stationary lander, where morning frosts were first observed. It has also been continuously observed for more than 25 years by the international fleet of orbiters at Mars.

If Utopia Planitia sounds familiar to science fiction fans, that’s because it was the site of the Federation’s foremost colony and ship-building facility in the Star Trek franchise.