Context

Chinese spacecraft, Tianwen-1, landed successfully on the surface of Mars which makes China the second space-faring nation after the U.S. to land on the Red Planet.

About

Key highlights of the Tianwen-1 Spacecraft

• Tianwen-1 or "Questions to Heaven", is China's first independent mission to Mars.
  • Tianwen-1, or "Questions to Heaven", named after a Chinese poem written two millennia ago.
• It is a five-tonne spacecraft that blasted off from the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
• It was launched by the powerful Long March 5 rocket.
• It is the first Chinese spacecraft which landed on Mars.
• It landed on a site on the Southern Utopia Plain.
• The landing process consisted of "nine minutes of terror" as the module decelerates and then slowly descends.

Minutes of terror In Mars missions, the 'minutes of terror' is referred to the entry, descent and landing (EDL) phase of the rover. It is known as the events take place much quicker than the radio signals can reach Earth from Mars for communication.  During the minutes of terror the engineers overlooking the event won't be able to guide or direct the Perseverance landing as it takes a while to establish or send any communication from Earth to Mars.  Hence, the rover will have to perform a landing itself, with no human guidance involved.  In the case of NASA’s Perseverance, it was ‘Seven minutes of terror’ and in Chinese Tianwen-1 Spacecraft, It was Nine minutes of terror.

• It has a solar-powered rover, which is named as Zhurong.
  • It was named after a mythical Chinese god of fire, Zhuronghas.
  • It comprises six scientific instruments including a high-resolution opography camera.
• Study: The rover will survey the landing site before its departure from the platform to conduct inspections.
  • The rover will study the planet's surface soil and atmosphere.
  • Zhurong will look for signs of ancient life, any sub-surface water and ice.