In a sense, the earth is the pride of the universe - for 4.6 billion years, only the earth in the long process of evolution shows the miracle of life. This is due to the proper distance between the earth and the sun. Within this range, the water on the earth has three forms: solid, liquid and gaseous, and the species on the earth can continue to live.
However, any celestial body has birth, growth and death like human beings. The Earth is 4.6 billion years old and will eventually grow older, perhaps 4.5 billion years. At that time, there would be no volcanic activity, no plate movement, and no strong earthquakes. The earth will cool down slowly and eventually become a big stone.
So, can humans find a second object and transform it into our second habitat? Scientists around the world are focusing on Mars. The same is true of China. Ouyang Ziyuan, 84, the first chief scientist of China's lunar exploration project, is known as the "father of Chang'e" because he successfully launched China's first lunar exploration satellite, Chang'e-1. Besides the lunar exploration, he is also concerned about China's Mars exploration program. In his special interview with reporters in this magazine, he looked at human exploration of the deep space with a deep and optimistic feeling, telling the story of Mars exploration in China.
Triple Life Weekly: Since 1960, when the Soviet Union launched its first Mars probe, nearly 50 Mars probes have been launched. Why are humans so keen on going to Mars? How do you think of the national Mars exploration competition?
Ouyang Ziyuan: Deep space exploration is the most effective means to understand the formation and evolution of the solar system and its various levels of celestial bodies, life traceability and a series of major basic scientific issues, and is an important way for human beings to develop and utilize space resources and protect the earth. Mars has become a hotspot and growing point in the field of deep space exploration because it may be the main target of extraterrestrial life exploration and its unique characteristics such as livability.
The four planets in the solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, are terrestrial planets, of which Mars is the most similar to the Earth. Mars is the nearest neighbor of the earth, about 60 million to 400 million kilometers away from the earth; the tilt angle of the rotation axis of Mars is 25.2 degrees, and the Earth is 23.5 degrees, so there are seasonal variations of spring, summer, autumn and winter between Mars and the Earth in a year; the rotation cycle of Mars is 24.66 hours a day and night, and the Earth has an extremely thin 24 hours; In the early history of Mars, there was liquid water on the surface of Mars, which developed rivers, lakes and oceans. There is evidence that Mars once thrived life.