China landed its first-ever Mars space rover on the Red Plant Saturday, awelcome development for a nation adamant on asserting itself as a force tobe reckoned with as far as its space missions are concerned.
The lander carrying “Zhurong” completed the treacherous descent through theMartian atmosphere using a parachute to navigate the “seven minutes ofterror” as it is known, aiming for a vast northern lava plain known as theUtopia Planitia.
It “successfully landed in the pre-selected area”, state broadcaster CCTVsaid, launching a special TV programme dedicated to the mission called”Nihao Mars” (“Hello Mars”).
The official Xinhua news agency cited the China National SpaceAdministration (CNSA) in confirming the touchdown.
It makes China the first country to carry out an orbiting, landing androving operation during its first mission to Mars — a feat unmatched bythe only other two nations to reach the Red Planet so far, the US andRussia.
President Xi Jinping sent his “warm congratulations and sincere greetingsto all members who have participated in the Mars exploration mission”,Xinhua reported.
China has now sent astronauts into space, powered probes to the Moon andlanded a rover on Mars, the most prestigious of all prizes in thecompetition for dominion of space.Three-month mission
Zhurong, named after a Chinese mythical fire god, arrives a few monthsbehind America’s latest probe to Mars — Perseverance — as the show oftechnological might between the two superpowers plays out beyond the boundsof Earth.
Six-wheeled, solar-powered and weighing roughly 240 kilograms (530 pounds),the Chinese rover is on a quest to collect and analyse rock samples fromMars’ surface.
The launch of China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe which carried the rover lastJuly marked a major milestone in China´s space programme.
The spacecraft entered Mars’ orbit in February and after a prolongedsilence state media announced it had reached the “crucial touchdown stage”on Friday.
The landing was set to be a nail-biter for the China National SpaceAdministration (CNSA), with state media describing the process of using aparachute to slow descent and buffer legs as “the most challenging part ofthe mission”.
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It is expected to spend around three months there taking photos andharvesting geographical data.
The complicated landing process is called the “seven minutes of terror”because it happens faster than radio signals can reach Earth from Mars,meaning communications are limited.
“The distance was too far away that the spacecraft has to do it totally byitself,” said Chen Lan, an independent analyst specialising in China´sspace programme. “If there was something wrong, people on the Earth have noway to help.”
Several US, Russian and European attempts to land rovers on Mars havefailed in the past, most recently in 2016 with the crash-landing of theSchiaparelli joint Russian-European spacecraft.
The latest successful arrival came in February, when US space agency NASAlanded its rover Perseverance, which has since been exploring the planet.
The US rover launched a small robotic helicopter on Mars which was thefirst-ever powered flight on another planet.
China has come a long way in its race to catch up with the United Statesand Russia, whose astronauts and cosmonauts have decades of experience inspace exploration.
It successfully launched the first module of its new space station lastmonth with hopes of having it crewed by 2022 and eventually sending humansto the Moon.
Last week a segment of the Chinese Long March 5B rocket disintegrated overthe Indian Ocean in an uncontrolled landing back to Earth.
That drew criticism from the United States and other nations for a breachof etiquette governing the return of space debris to Earth, with officialssaying the remnants had the potential to endanger life and property.
