Asian space race: China and India plan to go to Mars

“We choose to go to the moon this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are difficult. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energy and abilities. ”- It was the words of US President John F. Kennedy's 1961 speech that explain the country's efforts to pursue space.

More than exploring the unknown, we know that at that time Russia and the United States were strengthening international rivalry while celebrating their national development. Today, the announcement of China and India's interest in everything beyond the earth allows us to think that these two countries now occupy the space of the two major political and economic groups of decades ago.

India

Image Source: The Hindu

India's space program was created in the 1960s and until then had its main focus on developing the country and building satellites to help monitor the region's water and deforestation. In 2008, India launched Chandrayaan-1 - a satellite that orbited the moon - and now plans are under way to go even further in exploring the moon and weather in space.

And one of the destinations that are in India's plans is Mars. For this reason, the country created the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), a $ 73 million project that aims to place a space probe in orbit on Mars. One of the challenges of this mission is to make the device work properly, even with the red planet's temperature and radiation, as this caused Chandrayaan-1's “premature death”, which could not stand the moon's radiation.

According to The Planetary Society, India's Mars mission is scheduled for November 5, 2013.

China

Image Source: Reproduction / The Atlantic

China's space exploration program is already in its second decade and is planning a new space visit later this year. In December, a spacecraft will be placed aboard the Chang'e-3, and if all goes according to plan, it will land on the moon to analyze soil and rock samples. Zhao Xiaojin, director of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation's space department, described the spacecraft as equipment capable of adapting well in different environments and equipped with a high-performance robot.

According to The Atlantic, China's plans to conquer Mars are more ambitious, and are therefore planned for 2040 and 2060.

Space race

The New Scientist portal reveals that the increasing interest of these two countries for what is beyond the Earth's atmosphere may indicate the beginning of an Asian space race whose main objective is the conquest of Mars.

There is no doubt that such a competition would result in innovation, but perhaps the engineering challenges and financial efforts required for humans to reach Mars are large enough to discourage even the two Asian powers. Perhaps, suggests the New Scientist, a collaboration between the two countries was not the best strategy to ensure the successful exploration of the red planet. What do you think?