China is celerating another milestone in its ambitious space program: on its very first chinese rover mission to Mars, the country succeeded in landing a rover on the red planet.
So far, only the US has managed to deploy reconnaissance vehicles on Mars.
The “Zhurong” robot arrived in the area selected in advance on Saturday, Chinese state media reported. He will now study the atmosphere and the soil of Mars for about three months and take pictures. The rover, which weighs around 240 kilograms and whose name is derived from a fire god in Chinese mythology, is powered by solar energy and moves on six wheels.
The launch of the Mars probe “Tianwen-1” with the rover last July was an important success for China’s space program. As the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported, “Zhurong” managed to land in a northern lava plain, known as Utopia Planitia, as planned.
There is certainly life on #Mars! We're the life of the party! #Zhurong #Tianwen1 #CNSA @CNSA_en pic.twitter.com/cC8pZVmyVt
— China National Space Administration (CNSA) (@CNSA_en) May 15, 2021
The maneuver was “extremely complicated”, quoted the state media Geng Yan, an employee of the Chinese space program: “Each step had only one chance. The actions were closely related. If there was just one mistake, the landing would have failed, ”said Geng. After the successful landing, China’s state news agency Xinhua spoke of the beginning of a “new chapter” in space exploration. China’s President Xi Jinping congratulated the participating scientists.
China is the first country to orbit the Red Planet, land and rover directly on its first Mars mission. The only two other countries that have so far successfully landed on Mars, namely the USA and the former Soviet Union, had to make several attempts. The Soviet mission also failed despite the landing, as the Soviet Union lost contact with the probe immediately after landing.
The flight to Mars and landing are considered extremely difficult. Only about half of previous landing attempts were successful. In 2016, for example, the “Schiaparelli” probe, which Russia and the European Space Agency (ESA) had jointly sent to Mars, shattered on impact.
Multiple ongoing missions
The Chinese mission is now one of three flights to Mars that took off from Earth last summer. The United Arab Emirates and the USA had also sent rockets towards Mars at that time. In February, the US space agency NASA successfully landed its Mars rover “Perseverance” with the ultra-light mini helicopter “Ingenuity”. “Ingenuity” then completed its first historic flight on Mars in April.
Billion dollar space program
China has invested billions in the past few years to catch up with the US in space travel, which has been sending spaceships and astronauts into space for decades. At the end of April, the People’s Republic put the first module of its new space station into orbit. The station is scheduled to go into operation next year.
Criticism of uncontrolled rocket crash
Last week, the uncontrolled crash of a Chinese rocket into the Indian Ocean cast a slight shadow over the space nation China. The Langer Marsch-5B rocket, which had launched the first module of the Chinese space station, had lost altitude in an uncontrolled manner. Your crash in an inhabited area or on a ship could not be completely ruled out, which was criticized by NASA and space experts.
According to Chinese information, the planned space station is to be completed “around 2022”. Two more space flights are to follow in close succession in the coming weeks. In May, the cargo spacecraft “Tianzhou 2” could dock with fuel and supplies. Three astronauts are also preparing to fly to Tianhe on board Shenzhou 12, possibly in June.
Chinese Rover Landed On Mars
