China Lands Rover on Mars
China’s Zhurong lander/rover successfully landed on Mars today according to Chinese press reports. It is an impressive achievement on China’s first Mars landing attempt.
Zhurong was launched as part of the Tianwen-1 mission last year and entered orbit around Mars in February. Today it separated from Tianwen-1 and descended to the surface.
China on Saturday landed its #Mars probe, Tianwen-1, on the red planet, ushering in a new chapter of China’s deep space exploration and marking another contribution to humanity’s exploration of the universe https://t.co/rsc94CsYUZ pic.twitter.com/SPmT1IvuQz
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) May 15, 2021
The lander carrying China’s first Mars rover has touched down on the red planet, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) confirmed on Saturday morning. #GLOBALink pic.twitter.com/V1f6l6kxpG
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) May 15, 2021
Zhurong means God of Fire in Chinese mythology. The Chinese name for Mars, Huoxing, means Planet of Fire.
Zhurong landed in Utopia Planitia, a relatively flat plain.
The head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen, tweeted his congratulations.
Congratulations to CNSA’s #Tianwen1 team for the successful landing of China’s first Mars exploration rover, #Zhurong! Together with the global science community, I look forward to the important contributions this mission will make to humanity’s understanding of the Red Planet. pic.twitter.com/KexElIu8OH
— Thomas Zurbuchen (@Dr_ThomasZ) May 15, 2021
The United States has successfully landed nine landers and/or rovers on Mars since 1976, most recently the Perseverance rover and its Ingenuity helicopter this year. But landing on Mars is no mean feat. Only one of four attempts by the Soviet Union in the 1970s was even a partial success and two European probes — the UK’s Beagle 2 and the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli — did not survive. One U.S. mission (Mars Polar Lander) also did not make it.
Back in July 2020 when the mission was launched, China’s CGTN posted a video of the rover rolling off the lander.
China’s Xinhua news service reported that Zhurong landed at 7:18 am Beijing Time May 15 (7:18 pm May 14 EDT) and the 240 kilogram (530 pound) rover will roll over the lander in 7-8 days. It has a design lifetime of 90 days.
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