China landed a rover on Mars
- China’s uncrewed ‘Tianwen-1’ spacecraft recently landed safely on a large plain located in the northern hemisphere of Mars, known as Utopia Planitia.
- This makes China the third country in the world to send a rover to explore the mysterious Red Planet.
- Launched in July 2020, the mission consists of an orbiter, a lander and a golf cart-sized rover called ‘Zhurong’.
- The first spacecraft to land on Mars successfully was Mars 3, launched by the Soviet Union in 1971, however, it stops transmitting after just 110 seconds, Russia has not had a successful landing since.
- NASA successfully landed Viking 1 rover in July 1976, shortly after that, Viking 2 also arrived on the Red Planet.
- Most recently, in February this year, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed at the Jezero Crater on the Red Planet, after which it resumed work to look for signs of past life.
- This is not the first time China has attempted to send a spacecraft to Mars, nearly 10 years ago, China has launched the Yinghuo-1 mission, which ultimately failed after the Russian spacecraft burnt in the Earth’s atmosphere.