Space exploration has always been a sort of competition between countries, which seek to be “the best” in any of the discoveries that may occur to them, or in the arrival of humans to the depths outside our planet. It has happened since the 60s between the United States and Russia, and continues to happen today with the Americans and the powers that oppose them.
Its biggest competitor, and thorn in the side, now appears to be China. The Space Agency of the Asian giant has initiatives that surpass those of the Americans and that hits hard within NASA.
The North American space agency has been announcing its arrival to Mars for years, with rovers, and how it has a surprising plan to return remains from the red planet to Earth, in what would be the first return of samples from the surface of another world to ours.
NASA has already become the first space agency to achieve the same thing, but with an asteroid, in the recent OSIRIS-REx mission, with the remains of Bennu. They also hoped to be the first with Mars and their brilliant Mars Sample Return mission that will end in 2030. However, China seems to win in this case.
China says it will return Mars remains before NASA
A review of D.W. indicates that a team of Chinese scientists developed an advanced and accurate atmospheric model for the red planet, which they call GoMars.
What is this initiative about? They explain it as a numerical system that emulates the elements that are recorded in the environments of Mars.
For now, this numerical model performs simulations in which it recreates the three most complex environments on Mars: dust, water and carbon dioxide. So, if successful, it would advance the Chinese Space Agency’s missions to 2028. Specifically, the model would be incorporated into the Tianwen-3 probe.