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News > China

Chinese Spacecraft Lands on Mars

  • Chinese rover will explore Mars

    Chinese rover will explore Mars | Photo: Xinhua

Published 15 May 2021
Opinion

Unlike NASA's "Perseverance", China's "Zhurong" does not get much coverage by mainstream media

The lander, carrying a Mars rover, touched down Saturday at its pre-selected landing area in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain on the northern hemisphere of Mars, at 7:18 a.m. (Beijing Time), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced.

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China's Tianwen-1 Probe Enters Orbit Around Mars

China is working with the European Space Agency and Argentina for the mission's measurement and control, and with France and Austria for the calibration of multiple payloads and data analysis.

The landing marks an important step in China's interstellar exploration and a leap from the exploration of the Earth-Moon system to interplanetary exploration, said Chinese President Xi Jinping in a congratulatory message.
"The landing left a Chinese mark on Mars for the first time. It is another landmark progress in China's space industry development," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China.

The name Tianwen, meaning Questions to Heaven, comes from a poem written by the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan (circa 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).

When,etering Martian atmosphere,  the velocity of the spacecraft was lowered from 4.8 km per second to about 460 meters per second, a huge parachute covering an area of about 200 square meters was unfurled to continue reducing the velocity to less than 100 meters per second.

At about 100 meters above the Martian surface, the craft hovered to identify obstacles and measured the slopes of the surface. Avoiding the obstacles, it selected a relatively flat area and descended slowly, touching down safely with its four buffer legs.

China is working with the European Space Agency and Argentina for the mission's measurement and control, and with France and Austria for the calibration of multiple payloads and data analysis.

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