MARS LANDING BY CHINA
- May 16, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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MARS LANDING BY CHINA
Subject: Science & tech
Context: China landed a spacecraft on Mars carrying its first Mars rover in a big boost to its space ambitions.
Concept:
- China had in July last year launched its first Mars mission, called Tianwen-1, meaning Questions to Heaven, carrying a lander and rover.
- Tianwen-1 had been in orbit since February, and recently, a lander descended successfully on to the surface of the red planet.
- Only the Soviet Union and the U.S. had previously carried out a successful landing on Mars.
- China had previously tried to launch a Mars orbiter along with Russia in 2011, but that failed to enter orbit. This attempt, on its own, hit the target.
Zhurong Rover
- China’s first Mars rover will be named Zhurong after a traditional fire god.
- The rover is aboard the Tianwen-1 probe that arrived in Mars orbit on February 24 and is due to land in May to look for evidence of life.
- The rover will provide “first-hand materials for research on the planet’s space environment, surface topography, and soil structure”.
About Tianwen-1:
- China’s first Mars probe is called Tianwen-1 (formerly Huoxing 1).
- The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.
- Launched in 2020 on a Long March 5 rocket from Xichang, China.
- Landing site: Somewhere in Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in Mars’ northern latitudes and the same place NASA’s Viking 2 mission landed in the 1970s.