China has conquered Mars. The Zhurong rover, carried by the Tianwen-1 probe, touched the surface of the red planet. It is the first time that an Asian country has managed to land on Mars, a particularly difficult mission, failed in the past by many European, Soviet and American missions, which until now had only been successful for the United States.
Plans call for the rover to remain on the planet’s surface for a few days. It will perform a series of tests and then descend a ramp to explore the glacial area of Mars called Utopia Planitia. It will meet the American probe that landed on the red planet in February.
The Tianwen-1 probe (which can literally be translated “Questions for Heaven”, like a Chinese poem from two thousand years ago) weighs 5 tons. It was launched into orbit in July from the island of Hainan, in the south of the country, with the “Long March 5” missile. After more than six months of travel, the spacecraft reached Mars in February and remained in its orbit until it landed tonight.
The Chinese themselves had already failed to land on Mars once in 2011, in a joint operation with Russia in which, however, the probe was unable to leave Earth’s orbit. So far the United States has tried nine times to reach the red planet since 1976. The Soviet Union had succeeded in 1971, but the mission failed after the spacecraft stopped transmitting information to Earth shortly after touching Martian soil. There is currently an American rover and small helicopter on Mars, which landed on the planet in February and are now exploring it. NASA predicts that the rover will collect a soil sample in July and then return to Earth.
.