Space sector (Insights)

Checking on the missions to Mars…

NASA launched its Perseverance mission to put both an SUV-sized rover and a drone on the surface of Mars. China sent an orbiter and rover of its own. And the United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched a satellite to orbit the Red Planet. Well, I’m excited to say that all three missions have made it into orbit. The last mission of the three from China successfully landed its rover on the surface of Mars after a few months of orbiting the planet while figuring out where to land.  

What’s interesting to me here are the different approaches taken by NASA and China. NASA executed its landing mission immediately, putting the rover and the drone right to work collecting data. The landing location had already been predetermined.  On the other hand, China’s mission orbited Mars for a while before picking a landing location for its rover named Zhurong. Here’s what it looks like:

Zhurong is stripped down compared to Perseverance. It doesn’t have as many instruments, and they’re not as powerful. With one exception…  Zhurong has a very powerful ground-penetrating radar instrument. It’s an order of magnitude more powerful than what Perseverance has. This gives it the ability to see structures underground up to 100 meters deep. This is a key element of what China is focusing on.  

To me, it’s clear that China’s primary goal is to search for underground reserves of water or ice. And there’s only one reason why this would be the focus – China wants to have a manned outpost on Mars. That’s only realistic if a large water source can be identified. So it appears Elon Musk has some competition with his Mars ambitions. This is certainly something to watch in the coming months. And this is just more evidence that the new space race is on. This race has major implications for the future of human civilization. And it will provide us with some incredible investment opportunities along the way.