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Countdown to Mars: three daring missions take aim at the red planet

The United States, China and the United Arab Emirates will soon launch missions to a notoriously dangerous destination for spacecraft.
  1. Alexandra Witze
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  2. Smriti Mallapaty

    1. Smriti Mallapaty is a senior reporter in Sydney, Australia.

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  3. Elizabeth Gibney
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Three times in the coming month or so, rockets will light their engines and set course for Mars. A trio of nations — the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — will be sending robotic emissaries to the red planet, hoping to start new chapters of exploration there.

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Nature 583, 184-188 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01861-0

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 23 July 2020: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong number of instruments on the Chinese rover and orbiter.

Supplementary Information

  1. Mars missions infographic

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