CHINA: An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft successfully
landed on Mars' face on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua reported,
making China the second largest space operator after the United States
settled on the Red Planet.
The Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on a
wide plateau known as Utopia Planitia, "leaving China's trail to Mars
for the first time," Xinhua said.
The ship left its dry line at
about 1700 GMT on Friday (time 0100 in Beijing on Saturday). The arrival
module was separated from the orbiter three hours later into the
Martian spacecraft, a Chinese Space News official said.
It says the arrival process had 9 minutes of panic as the module shrinks and then slows down.
A
powerful solar robot, named Zhurong, is now looking at its destination
before moving away from its orbit. Named after the Chinese fire god,
Zhurong has six scientific instruments including a high-resolution
environmental camera.
The rover will learn about the soil of the
earth and its atmosphere. Zhurong will also look at the signs of ancient
life, including any groundwater and ice, using ground radar.
Tianwen-1,
or "Questions to Heaven", after a Chinese poem written two thousand
years ago, is China's first independent machine for making Mars. A joint
investigation with Russia in 2011 failed to leave the Earth's path.
The
five-ton spacecraft exploded on the southern Chinese island of Hainan
in July last year, launched by the powerful rocket Long March 5.
After traveling for more than six months, Tianwen-1 reached Red Planet in February where he had been circling since then.
If
Zhurong were still successfully distributed, China would be the first
country to travel, settle the earth and release a rover in its first
mission on Mars.
Tianwen-1 was one of three who arrived on Mars
in February, in a U.S. rover. Perseverance successfully relied on
February 18 in a major depression called the Jeero Crater, more than
2,000 miles from Utopia Planitia.
Hope - the third spacecraft
that landed on Mars in February this year - is not designed to land.
Launched by the United Arab Emirates, it is currently circling above
Mars collecting information on its climate and atmosphere.
The
first successful landing was done by NASA's Viking 1 in July 1976 and
Viking 2 in September of that year. Mars' investigation launched by the
former Soviet Union arrived in December 1971, but communication was lost
a few minutes after its arrival.
China is pursuing an ambitious
space program. It explores obsolete spacecraft and plans to establish a
man-made research station.
In a statement issued on Saturday,
Xinhua said China "did not want to compete for leadership in space" but
committed itself to "revealing the secrets of the universe and
contributing to the peaceful use of human space."
aving China's trail to Mars for the first time," Xinhua said.
The ship left its dry line at about 1700 GMT on Friday (time 0100 in Beijing on Saturday). The arrival module was separated from the orbiter three hours later into the Martian spacecraft, a Chinese Space News official said.
It says the arrival process had 9 minutes of panic as the module shrinks and then slows down.
A powerful solar robot, named Zhurong, is now looking at its destination before moving away from its orbit. Named after the Chinese fire god, Zhurong has six scientific instruments including a high-resolution environmental camera.
The rover will learn about the soil of the earth and its atmosphere. Zhurong will also look at the signs of ancient life, including any groundwater and ice, using ground radar.
Tianwen-1, or "Questions to Heaven", after a Chinese poem written two thousand years ago, is China's first independent machine for making Mars. A joint investigation with Russia in 2011 failed to leave the Earth's path.
The five-ton spacecraft exploded on the southern Chinese island of Hainan in July last year, launched by the powerful rocket Long March 5.
After traveling for more than six months, Tianwen-1 reached Red Planet in February where he had been circling since then.
If Zhurong were still successfully distributed, China would be the first country to travel, settle the earth and release a rover in its first mission on Mars.
Tianwen-1 was one of three who arrived on Mars in February, in a U.S. rover. Perseverance successfully relied on February 18 in a major depression called the Jeero Crater, more than 2,000 miles from Utopia Planitia.
Hope - the third spacecraft that landed on Mars in February this year - is not designed to land. Launched by the United Arab Emirates, it is currently circling above Mars collecting information on its climate and atmosphere.
The first successful landing was done by NASA's Viking 1 in July 1976 and Viking 2 in September of that year. Mars' investigation launched by the former Soviet Union arrived in December 1971, but communication was lost a few minutes after its arrival.
China is pursuing an ambitious space program. It explores obsolete spacecraft and plans to establish a man-made research station.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Xinhua said China "did not want to compete for leadership in space" but committed itself to "revealing the secrets of the universe and contributing to the peaceful use of human space."
Posts
