China Landed First Rover on Mars
The rover that reaches Mars weighs around 240 kg, has six wheels and four solar panels, and can rotate up to 200 meters per hour. It has six scientific instruments including a multi-dimensional camera, radar, and a meteorological measure. It is expected to work on Mars for about three months.
China’s space agency China National Space Administration (CNSA) confirmed on Saturday morning that a spacecraft carrying the country’s first rover to Mars has landed on a ‘red’ planet. With this, China has become the second country in the world to land a rover on Mars.
Rover weighs :
The rover that reaches Mars weighs around 240 kg, has six wheels and four solar panels, and can rotate up to 200 meters per hour. It has six scientific instruments including a multi-dimensional camera, radar, and a meteorological measure. It is expected to work on Mars for about three months.
The launch was done on 23 July 2020:
The spacecraft ‘Tianwen-1’ carrying an orbiter, a lander, and a rover was launched on 23 July 2020. This is China’s first step towards reaching Mars with the aim of completing orbiting, landing, and roving in a mission for further exploration in the solar system.
Nine Minutes Hard Journey:
The CNSA said in a statement that its rover successfully landed on Mars on Saturday after a “nine-minute ordeal”. So far, only America has mastered landing on Mars.
With this, China has become the second country to reach Mars with a rover. NASA’s Percussion Rover reached Mars on February 18, after a journey of about seven months.
Jinping Congratulated:
Earlier, America, Russia, European Union, and India have been successful in sending spacecraft to Mars. Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated the CNSA for successfully launching China’s first rover on Mars. The spacecraft entered the orbit of Mars in February after traveling for nearly seven months and spent more than two months identifying possible locations to land on the planet.
100 meters above the surface of Mars:
Xinhua said that in the early Saturday, the spacecraft began to descend from its orbit and separated from the lander and rover orbiter. After traveling for nearly three hours, the entry capsule penetrated into the atmosphere of Mars at an altitude of 125 km. At an altitude of about 100 meters above the surface of Mars, he faced obstacles but he chose a superficial area avoiding the obstacles, and started descending slowly.
First-time orbiter, lander and rover together
China’s National Space Agency (CNSA) vehicle Tianwan-1 was circling Mars since February this year. Now his lander has landed on a huge plain named Mars’s Utopia Planita which is located in the northern hemisphere of Mars. In this way, China has now become the only country in the world that has successfully sent an orbiter, lander, and rover together on a planet or satellite.
Big historical step for china:
According to Chinese state media CCTV, the Tianwan mission made the first landing on another planet and is a major achievement in China’s space history. The lander has made the Zureong rover named after the fire god of China, making China the second country in the world to land a rover on Mars.
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