The Carlos Garcia Rawlins Long March 5 Y-4 rocket, carrying the Mars research rocket of the Tianwen-1 mission, lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan province, China July 23, 2020.
China has become the second country in the world to successfully land a spacecraft on Mars.
An unmanned Chinese spacecraft successfully landed on the surface of Mars on Saturday (15/5). This landing made China the second space explorer country after the United States to successfully land on the Red Planet.
The Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed at a site on a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia, “leaving China’s footprint on Mars for the first time,” the Xinhua News Agency quoted the Xinhua News Agency as saying.
The plane left its orbit on Saturday (15/5) at around 01.00 Beijing time. The landing module separated from the orbiter three hours later and entered the Martian atmosphere, China Space News officials said.
Xinhua described the landing process as a “Nine minute terror” as the module slowed down and then slowly descended.
A fleet of solar-powered cruisers, named Zhurong, were remotely controlled to survey the landing site before departing from its platform for inspections. Named after the mythical Chinese god of fire, Zhurong has six scientific instruments including a high-resolution topographic camera.
The rover will study the planet’s land surface and atmosphere. Zhurong will also look for signs of ancient life, including subsurface water and ice, using ground-penetrating radar.
Tianwen-1, or “Question to Heaven”, based on a Chinese poem written two millennia ago was China’s first independent mission to Mars. Previously, a spacecraft launched together with Russia in 2011 failed to leave Earth’s orbit.
The five-ton spacecraft was launched from the Chinese island of Hainan
south in July last year, launched by a powerful Long March 5 rocket.
After more than six months of transit, Tianwen-1 reached the Red Planet in February where it has been in orbit ever since.
If Zhurong is successfully deployed, China will be the first country to orbit, land, and release a rover on its maiden mission to Mars.
Tianwen-1 was one of three to reach Mars in February, with the US rover, Perseverance, successfully landing on February 18 in a great depression called Jezero Crater, more than 2,000 km from Utopia Planitia.
Hope – the third spacecraft to arrive on Mars in February this year – was not designed to make a landing. Launched by the United Arab Emirates, it is currently orbiting over Mars collecting data on its weather and atmosphere.
The first successful landings were made by NASA’s Viking 1 in July 1976 and then by Viking 2 in September of that year. A Mars probe launched by the former Soviet Union landed in December 1971, but communication was cut off seconds after landing.
China is pursuing an ambitious space program. It is testing a reusable spacecraft and also plans to build a manned lunar research station.
In a commentary published on Saturday, Xinhua said China does not want to compete for leadership in space, but is committed to “revealing the secrets of the universe and contributing to mankind’s peaceful use of space.”
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