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I believe the Chinese mission actually does have more mass overall - although the rover is a lot smaller, they're also sending a large orbiter and a landing pla
by pauldino 6y ago
I believe the Chinese mission actually does have more mass overall - although the rover is a lot smaller, they're also sending a large orbiter and a landing platform to deliver the rover to the surface.
- shadowgovt 6y agoThat's cool. If NASA and CNSA can work the details out, they can share comms; it's always good to have more redundant comms solutions in orbit.
- pauldino 6y agoUnfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you ask) NASA is very restricted in what it can do with China, so probably not. But NASA does utilize ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter in addition to their own Mars orbiters for relay operations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_exclusion_policy_of_NASA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_exclusion_policy_of_NA...
- billfruit 6y agoI heard CNSA is also planning to use an ESA orbiter as backup comms relay, besides using the ESA ground tracking stations as well.