{"id":250547,"date":"2021-05-14T19:07:51","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T16:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/china-rover-to-attempt-mars-landing-over-coming-days\/"},"modified":"2021-05-14T19:07:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T16:07:51","slug":"china-rover-to-attempt-mars-landing-over-coming-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/china-rover-to-attempt-mars-landing-over-coming-days\/","title":{"rendered":"#China rover to attempt Mars landing over coming days"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#China rover to attempt Mars landing over coming days<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"China's
\n China’s “Zhurong” rover, part of its ambitious space programme to send a probe to Mars, is set to attempt the challenging landing in the next five days
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China’s “Zhurong” rover, part of its ambitious space programme to send a probe to Mars, is set to attempt the challenging landing on the Red Planet in the next five days, Beijing’s space agency said Friday.<\/p>\n


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The tricky touchdown, if successful, would come a few months behind America’s latest probe to Mars, as Beijing presses ahead with its increasingly bold space ambitions.<\/p>\n

“Based on current flight conditions, the Tianwen-1 probe intends to choose an opportunity to land … in the period from early morning Saturday to Wednesday Beijing time,” the China National Space Administration said in an online statement.<\/p>\n

The launch of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe last July marked a major milestone in China’s space programme, which Beijing views as a sign of its rising global stature and technological might.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft, which entered Mars’ orbit in February, has now reached “crucial touchdown stage”, the state-run tabloid Global Times said Friday. It will land in a vast northern lava plain known as the Utopia Planitia.<\/p>\n

Speculation about a Saturday landing has been rife on social media<\/a> after a top spaceflight expert estimated the rover\u2014named after a mythological Chinese fire god\u2014would reach the surface in the morning Beijing time.<\/p>\n

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\"Tianwen-1:
\n Graphic on China’s Mars probe Tianwen-1 and its rover Zhurong
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The complicated landing process has been called the “seven minutes of terror” because it happ<\/a>ens faster than radio signals can reach Earth from Mars, meaning communications are limited.<\/p>\n

Several US, Russian and European attempts to land rovers on Mars have failed in the past, most recently in 2016 with the crash-landing of the Schiaparelli joint Russian-European spacecraft.<\/p>\n

The latest successful arrival came in February, when US space agency NASA landed its rover Perseverance, which has since been exploring the planet. <\/p>\n

The US rover launched a small robotic helicopter on Mars which was the first ever powered flight on another planet.<\/p>\n

Six-wheeled, solar-powered and roughly 240 kilograms, the Chinese rover will collect and analyse rock samples from Mars’ surface. <\/p>\n

It is expected to spend around three months there. <\/p>\n

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\"Zhurong:
\n Graphic on China’s Mars rover Zhurong
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If successful, China will be the world’s first country to carry out an orbiting, landing and roving operation during its first mission to Mars.<\/p>\n

It will become just the third nation to safely touch down on the Red Planet after Russia and the United States.<\/p>\n

The country has come a long way in its race to catch up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts and cosmonauts have decades of experience in space exploration.<\/p>\n

China successfully launched the first module of its new space station last month with hopes of having it crewed by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the Moon.<\/p>\n

Last week a segment of the Chinese Long March 5B rocket disintegrated over the Indian Ocean in an uncontrolled landing back to Earth.<\/p>\n

That drew criticism from the United States and other nations for a breach of etiquette governing the return of space debris to earth, with officials saying the remnants had the potential to endanger life and property.<\/p>\n\n

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China names Mars rover for traditional fire god\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n China rover to attempt Mars landing over coming days (2021, May 14)
\n retrieved 15 May 2021
\n from https:\/\/phys.org\/news<\/a>\/2021-05-china-rover-mars-days.html<\/p>\n

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\n part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n