Free Republic

China has made it to Mars.The nation's first fully homegrown Mars mission, Tianwen-1, arrived in orbit around the Red Planet today (Feb. 10), according to Chinese media reports.The milestone makes China the sixth entity to get a probe to Mars, joining the United States, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency, India and the United Arab Emirates, whose Hope orbiter made it to the Red Planet just yesterday (Feb. 9).And today's achievement sets the stage for something even more epic a few months from now — the touchdown of Tianwen-1's lander-rover pair on a large plain in Mars' northern hemisphere...

Kilopower is a small, lightweight fission power system capable of providing up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power—enough to run several average households—continuously for at least 10 years. Four Kilopower units would provide enough power to establish an outpost. A video explains how kilopower works. The prototype power system uses a solid, cast uranium-235 reactor core, about the size of a paper towel roll. Passive sodium heat pipes transfer reactor heat to high-efficiency Stirling engines, which convert the heat to electricity.

Chinese astronauts carried out a manned docking with an experimental spacemodule on Monday, the latest milestone in China's ambitious campaign to build a space station. The Shenzhou 9 and its three-person crew, which includes China's first woman in space Liu Yang, linked with the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module, with state television showing the pictures live. Almost three hours later, the blue jumpsuit-wearing mission commander, Jing Haipeng, entered the module followed by colleague Liu Wang and Liu Yang, the first time China has been able to transfer astronauts between two orbiting craft. Rendezvous and docking exercises between the two vessels...

China plans to launch its third ever manned space mission later this month. A state news agency says this mission will feature its first-ever space walk. It'll carry three astronauts into space, 1 of whom will conduct a space walk that'll be broadcast live using cameras mounted on the inside and outside of the spacecraft. In 2003, China became the third country in the world to send a human into orbit. Last year China launched a moon probe about a month after rival Japan did the same thing.