China Lands Rover on Mars
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Artwork of a lander and Zhurong Rover
China has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars, state media announced early on Saturday.
The six-wheeled Zhurong robot was targeting Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain in the planet's northern hemisphere.
The vehicle used a combination of a protective capsule, a parachute and a rocket platform to make the descent.
The successful touchdown is a remarkable achievement, given the difficult nature of the task.
Only the Americans have really mastered landing on Mars until now. With this landing, China becomes the second country to put a rover on Mars.
Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated the team's "outstanding achievement" in a special message.
"You were brave enough for the challenge, pursued excellence and placed our country in the advanced ranks of planetary exploration," he said.
Artwork of a lander and the Zhurong rover: It's a daunting prospect landing on Mars
The probe officially landed at 07:18 on Saturday, Beijing time (Friday 23:18 GMT), according to state media. It took 17 minutes to unfold its solar panels and send a signal back to Earth.
Zhurong, which means God of Fire, was carried to Mars on the Tianwen-1 orbiter, which arrived above the planet in February.
The time since has been spent surveying Utopia, taking high-resolution images to pinpoint the safest place to put down.
The aim with all such ventures is to pick a spot, as far as possible, that is devoid of imposing craters and large boulders.
File photo released on March 4, 2021 by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) shows a high-resolution image of Mars captured by the country's Tianwen-1 probe. (CNSA/Handout via Xinhua)
Chinese engineers have to follow events with a time lag.
The current distance to Mars is 320 million km, which means radio messages take almost 18 minutes to reach Earth.
Every stage of the Zhurong's approach to the surface therefore has to be managed autonomously.
The entry (into the atmosphere), descent and landing strategy follows a familiar architecture.
At the chosen moment, the rover encased in an aeroshell, is released from the Tianwen orbiter and dives downwards.
Naming announcement
The name Tianwen, meaning Questions to Heaven, comes from a poem written by the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC). China's first Mars rover is named Zhurong after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology, which echoes with the Chinese name of the red planet: Huoxing (the planet of fire).
A heatshield on the capsule slows the fall by pushing up against the Martian air. A parachute then opens to reduce the velocity still further. Finally, the robot breaks away on a rocket-powered bench for the manoeuvres that take it to the ground.
It is a daunting challenge, but China has shown great competence of late in its space endeavours, which have included putting two rovers on the Moon.
Now that Zhurong has got down successfully, scientists will try to get at least 90 Martian days of service out of it, studying the local geology. A day, or Sol, on Mars lasts 24 hours and 39 minutes.
A tall mast carries cameras to take pictures and aid navigation; five additional instruments will help assess the mineralogy of local rocks and look for any water-ice below ground.
Source: BBC, Xinhua
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