China has landed the Tianwen-1 spacecraft on the Red Planet. This is the first time a Chinese spacecraft has landed on another planet.
The Chinese space industry has passed another important stage of development: the rover created by engineers of the Celestial Empire for the first time landed on the surface of another planet.
The successful landing of the Tianwen-1 spacecraft was reported by the Chinese National Space Administration. The lander touched down on the surface of Mars at 07: 18 Beijing time (02: 18 Moscow time). Before that, it and the orbiter module were separated. After reducing the speed, the lander opened the parachute, and then dropped it: the final speed damping was achieved due to the braking rocket engine.
Landing of the Chinese planetoid
Image source: CNSA
The spacecraft landed in the southern part of the Utopia plain in the Northern Hemisphere of the Red Planet. The landing was carried out in automatic mode, which is due to a large communication delay and the impossibility of direct control from the Ground. According to the plan, after touching the surface, the rover should check all the systems and get off the landing platform, starting research.
Among the tasks of the rover is mapping the morphology and geological structure of the Red Planet on the example of the studied area. In turn, the orbiting probe is aimed at the global study of Mars. In a broad sense, the mission should allow us to answer the question of the existence of life on the planet (now or earlier), as well as to explore its surface.
The height of the rover reaches 1.85 meters, its mass is 240 kilograms. The device was equipped with a ground-penetrating radar for research to a depth of 100 meters below the surface, a magnetic field detector on the surface, a device for meteorological measurements, a detector of surface compounds of Mars, a multispectral camera, as well as navigation and topographic cameras.
The Tianwen-1 mission was launched on July 23, 2020. The Changzheng-5 was used as a launch vehicle.
CZ-5 launch vehicle with Tianwen-1 probe»
Image source: Roman Balandin/TASS
Another achievement of China was last year's landing on the Moon of the automatic station "Chang'e-5". The device took samples of lunar soil and delivered them to Earth, which was the first scientific mission of this nature for the Celestial Empire.
The first, but not the last. In 2024, China is to launch the Chang'e-6 expedition to the moon. The drone will land on the surface of the satellite, take samples and bring them home.
All this is part of a more ambitious plan aimed at the first landing of a Taikonaut on the lunar surface. In the future, China, together with Russia, wants to create a base on the moon.
