Update 2024-12-31 : China land theZhurong Roverin Utopia Planitia on May 15 at 7:18 promethium ET . China becomes the second country to successfully land a rover on Mars .
The Tianwen-1 mission , China ’s first exploration of the Red Planet , is believe to be entering its next critical phase . Its lander and rover are expected to furcate from the orbiter and experience the " seven minutes of terror " on the way to the Earth’s surface of Mars .
Sourcessuggest that the atmospheric entry will take place on May 14 at 6:11 postmortem examination ET ( 11:11 pm UTC ) . The lander will come down through the atmosphere , plow by a heat shield . It will then deploy a chute to slow down its descent . So far , this is similar to what NASA ’s Perseverance did in its atmospherical debut .
But unlike the NASA rover – which had a skycrane to gently lower it to the ground – the lander will be doing all the work here . Retrorockets will eventually tolerate the scheme to soft - land in Utopia Planitia . If everything goes according to architectural plan , it will then deploy a incline from which the rover can condescend onto the ground .
The rover is called Zhurong , after a mythological figure of Chinese folklore associated with flaming . It is equip with an interesting retinue of instruments to inquire the Martian Earth’s surface : Cameras , mass spectrometer , a weather condition station , and a magnetised bailiwick detector . The most challenging machine onboard is a ground - penetrating radiolocation that will image about 100 meters ( 330 feet ) below the control surface of the Red Planet .
While Zhurong will be roaming , Tianwen-1will continue its orbital observations of the planet . The satellite can take detailed trope of Mars , study its surface , subsurface , atmosphere , and magnetics from orbit . The observations from the pair will complement each other very well .
While this is China ’s first interplanetary mission , the country has had its share of successes in recent long time . It was the first to land a lander and a scouter on the far side of the Moon with theChang’e 4 missionary post . And its replacement , Chang’e 5 , landed and get back2 kg ( 4.4 Syrian pound ) of rocksfrom the surface of the Moon just a few calendar month ago .
If the landing is successful , China will become the third country to balmy - land on Mars and the 2nd one to deploy a rover . Zhurong is expected to wreak for 90 sols – one colloidal solution is a Martian day – corresponding to 92 years on Earth . This is a similar expected value that NASA had for the rovers Spirit andOpportunity , both of which rolled about Mars for year after the end of their official charge . Hopefully , this can be the cause for Zhurong too .
[ H / T : CNET ]
