‘God of Fire’ lands on Red Planet
China marks major milestone as second nation on Earth to send probes to Mars
The lander carrying China’s first Mars rover has touched down on the Red Planet, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) confirmed.
Tianwen-1 probe’s successful landing marks China’s first landing on an extraterrestrial planet and makes it the second country, after the United States, to do so.
“The Mars exploration mission has been a total success,” Zhang Kejian, head of the CNSA, announced at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre yesterday.
After the success was confirmed, the control centre in Beijing was filled with cheer and applause.
“It’s another important milestone for China,” he said.
The Tianwen-1 probe touched down at its landing area in Utopia Planitia on Mars, at 7.18am Beijing time yesterday, the CNSA announced.
It took ground controllers more than an hour to establish the success of the pre-programmed landing. They had to wait for the rover to autonomously unfold its solar panels and antenna to send the signals after landing, and there was a time delay of more than 17 minutes due to the 320-million-km distance between Earth and Mars.
Tianwen-1, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan province on July 23, last year.
It was the first step in China’s planetary exploration of the solar system, with the aim of completing orbiting, landing and roving on the red planet in one mission.
China’s first Mars rover is named
Zhurong after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology.
The spacecraft entered the Mars orbit in February after a journey of nearly seven months through space, and spent more than two months surveying potential landing sites.
Zhurong will take a further seven to eight days to detect the surrounding environment and conduct self checks before moving down from the lander to the Martian surface, according to Geng Yan, an official at the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Centre of the CNSA.
The six-wheeled solar-powered rover, resembling a blue butterfly with a mass of 240kg, has an expected lifespan of at least 90 Martian days (about three months on Earth).
China has constructed Asia’s largest steerable radio telescope with a 70m diameter antenna at Wuqing District in northern China’s Tianjin to receive data from the Mars exploration mission. — Xinhua
beijing: China’s probe to Mars touched down on the Red Planet to deploy its Zhurong rover, during a busy time for Martian exploration.
China, the US and hitherto space minnows the UAE have sent probes to the treacherous planet, where failure to land safely is more frequent than success.
China’s Tianwen-1 probe successfully launched last July and entered Mars’ orbit in February – a major milestone for Beijing’s ambitious space programme.
The six-wheeled, solar-powered Zhurong – named after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology – is on a mission to collect rocks and data, and scan the surface.
Here is a look at how China’s efforts to reach the red planet compare with those of other countries throughout history.
Perseverance
Nasa’s Perseverance earlier this year became the fifth rover to successfully land on Mars since 1997, launching shortly after China’s Tianwen-1.
It has a remit to hunt for signs of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet and in April flew a helicopter-drone on another world for the first time.
Scientists hope the rover, equipped with its own oxygen-producing facilities, can help pave the way for future manned missions.
Hope
The Arab world’s first mission to another planet successfully arrived in Mars’ orbit in February, after it was launched by the United Arab Emirates last July.
The spacecraft, which will remain high above the surface in orbit, is designed to further study Mars’ atmosphere and how its climate has changed over time.
Schiaparelli
The European Space Agency and Russian space agency’s ExoMars joint mission got off to a rocky start when its first phase, the Schiaparelli lander, spun out of control and crashed on Mars’ surface in October 2016.
Named after a 19th-century Italian astronomer, the failed mission will pave the way for the second part of the ExoMars programme – the Rosalind Franklin rover, set to launch in 2022.
Curiosity
Nasa’s flagship Curiosity rover – of which Perseverance is an updated version – remains active on Mars’ surface after landing in 2012 in a spectacle watched by millions.
Charged with finding out whether Mars could have once supported life, the sophisticated car-sized rover has built on the work of its Nasa predecessors and discovered further evidence of water previously on the planet’s surface.
It is now studying Mars’ geology and the history of its environment. To do this, it is climbing a five-kilometre-tall mountain in an ancient lakebed.
Opportunity
Nasa’s Opportunity, the longest-running Mars rover, reached the surface of the Red Planet in 2004, staying operational until 2018 when it was hit by a dust storm.
It and its twin rover, Spirit, confirmed that there was once liquid water on Mars’ arid surface. —