Relógios TAG Heuer fazem parceria com programa espacial chinês e missão a Marte

O programa espacial chinês de exploração de Marte acaba de assinar uma parceria com a TAG Heuer. Na cerimónia, ocorrida hoje em Beijing, esteve presente Jean-Claude Biver, CEO da TAG Heuer e Presidente da Divisão de Relojoaria do grupo, além do Director do programa, Jizhong Liu, e do Chefe de Design da missão, Rongqiao Zhang,

Em Maio de 2012, a TAG Heuer enviou o seu novo Carrera Calibre 1887 SpaceX Chronograph numa missão orbital. O relógio foi levado até à Estação Espacial Internacional, a bordo da nave SpaceX, para provar a sua fiabilidade e precisão sob condições extremas.

Em Julho passado, a TAG Heuer anunciou uma parceria inédita com o programa espacial S3 (Swiss Space Systems) ZeroG. Um relógio TAG Heuer S3 serviu como boarding pass para aceder ao voo, que serve para o público em geral ter a experiência de gravidade zero.

O programa espacial chinês, em comunciado da TAG Heuer:

On October 8, 1956, the Fifth Academy of the Ministry of National Defense was founded as China’s first institute on missile and rocket research.

In May 1958, the Chinese central government decided to begin development of man-made satellites. After the unremitting efforts of Chinese elite space scientists, China’s first man-made earth satellite was launched on April 24, 1970.

In 2003, China completed the first manned space flight; in 2007, China’s first lunar orbiter was launched; and in 2013, China’s first lunar probe successfully landed, and has worked in space for 19 months now, setting a record in the world of the longest working time on the moon.

On April 22, 2016, Xu Dazhe, head of the China National Space Administration, confirmed on a state council press conference that the Mars mission had been officially set up and an unmanned probe to Mars will be sent to orbit and land on the Red Planet in 2020 to conduct research on planet's soil, environment and atmosphere for the first time.

This mission is another one of China’s most important space exploration mission since its manned spacecraft, lunar exploration flights. Unlike any of the first U.S. or Russian Mars expeditions,

China’s first Mars program will consist of orbiting, landing and rover deployment in one mission. According to the plan, shortly after successfully orbiting the Mars, the lander with the rover will separate from the orbiter and begin its descent to the surface of the planet, leading to a higher demand on the autonomous operations of the rover after its landing. The trajectory design is also more challenging to meet both orbiting and landing requirements.

At its most distant, Mars is as far as 400 million km away from the earth, while the average distance from the earth to the moon is 384,000 km, which makes the Mars expedition a more ambitious challenge than a lunar soft landing and roving. The increased distance requires higher data transmission rates, adding difficulties to remotely control a rover on the Mars surface. In addition, compared to the moon,

Mars receives less sunlight, which is further blocked by its dusty atmosphere, making it more challenging to ensure the rover’s energy supply. Meet The Challenge, Explore Mars Scheduled to launch in 2020, the ambitious program aims to explore the topography, soil, environment, and atmosphere of Mars, as well as the distribution of ice and water on the planet, its physical fields and internal structure.

O primeiro relógio TAG Heuer no espaço esteve no pulso de um norte-americano, em 1962. A 20 de Fevereiro desse ano, foi a primeira marca suíça de relojoaria nessaa situação. "The clock is running!" Com estas palavras, John Glenn accionou o seu cronómetro de bolso, a bordo da cápsula Mercury Friendship 7, sendo o primeiro norte-americano a fazer um voo orbital.O relógio foi atado a uma banda elástica, para poder ser usado por cima da manga do fato de Gleen. A escolha da TAG Heuer foi feita pela NASA, devido à sua capacidade de resistência a forças G. Este relógio está agora no Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, com uma réplica no Museu TAG Heuer em La Chaux-de-Fonds.