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Tianwen-1 (TW-1; simplified chinese:! 天问; traditional Chinese: 天問; lit. 'heavenly questions') is an interplanetary mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA):China National Space Administration (CNSA) to send a robotic spacecraft to Mars, consisting of an orbiter, deployable camera, lander and rover. The mission was successfully launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on 23 July 2020[9] on a Long March 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle and is currently in orbit around Mars, having reached planetary orbit on 10 February 2021.[10][7] With this feat, China became the sixth country to orbit Mars. In September 2020 Tianwen-1 deployed the TW-1 Deployable Camera (TDC), a small satellite with two cameras that took photos of and tested a Wi-Fi connection with Tianwen-1.[11] Tianwen-1 also completed two mid-course orbital corrections and performed self diagnostics on multiple payloads.[12] The spacecraft has begun to conduct scientific operations with the Mars Energetic Particle Analyzer, mounted on the orbiter, which has already transmitted data back to ground control.[13] Its objectives are to search for evidence of both current and past life, and to assess the planet's environment. The mission will attempt to land its rover on Mars in May 2021, and if successful China will be the third country to achieve a soft landing on Mars after the Soviet Union and the United States, and the second to deploy a rover.[4][14] The name Tianwen, meaning "questions to heaven" or "quest for heavenly truth", comes from the long poem of the same name written by Qu Yuan (about 340–278 BC), a poet of ancient China
