On April 24^th China celebrated its Space day in Hefei, Anhui Province. Main focus of the event was to carry forward the Chinese dream of atomic & space technology. The next steps of the manned spaceflight, lunar exploration, & BeiDou Navigation Satellite system in the coming decades is another focus. To coincide with the event Chinese scientists released the first color coded global map of Mars & scientific data gathered by Tianwen 1Mars mission (during November 2021 till July 2022). The 76M spatial resolution has secured approx 14,757 high quality colour images which will facilitate Martian exploration projects in the future.

Using these high resolution images of Mars, Chinese scientists have identified many geographic entities. Of them all approx 22 have been named after historical & culturally important places in China. All such places in China are believed to be populated less than 100,000 & the naming has been done as per the rules of International Astronomical Union (Ref CNSA).

The first centenary goal

The first centenary goal of China was raise all living in main land above the poverty line by 2021 when the Communist party of China celebrated its centenary. Before reaching that goal, China extended its Belt & Road Initiative to outer space by launching the Tianwen-1 Mars probe which entered the Mars orbit in February 2021 & the rover landed on Mars in May 2021. The rover which traveled approx 1900M on mars spending 358 Martian days is now in sleep mode. Those who wish to see China going back to sleep should remember that only the rover is sleeping but not China. By June, 2022, Tianwen 1’s orbiter has been in operation for more than 1,000 days & will continue its exploration (Ref. CNSA).

The second centenary goal

The second goal of china is to build a moderately prosperous (Xiaokang) society by 2049 when the Peoples Republic celebrates 100 years. That will be one year after SL & India celebrates 100 years of independence from the colonial rule. Indians shed blood to get rid of the British, struggled & build a powerful nation. One might say that Indians worked hard in all aspects as they overtook China even population wise (Ref. UN statistics) a few days ago.

SL negotiated its independence from Britain, misunderstood socialism from scratch & landed on the belly after 75 years due to mismanagement of the entire system. China however, managed colonial elements wisely, developed one China with support from the British in Hong Kong till 1997 & the Portuguese till 1999 in Macao & became the world’s second largest economy with a socialist system of government. Sri Lankans almost daily hear astrologers forecasting the future with stars, sun & the moon in media. It high time they make correct but popular decisions to develop the country. If so one day they will be able to explore other planets scientifically rather than worshiping such near trees & closed shrines etc.

Literate plan the future while illiterate wish  – Chinese proverb.

Views expressed are personal