Published: 17th May, 2021
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.
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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.
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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.
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Minutes of terror
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- 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.
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