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May 15, 2021: The Tianwen-1 probe touched Martian soil in the southern part of the Utopia Planitia plain, the Global Times tabloid reported. The landing on Mars occurred on the 295th day of its voyage after being launched by a long march-5 rocket from the base of Wenchang in the province of Hainan, which took place on 23 July 2020. The Tianwen-1 had entered the orbit of Mars on February 10th.
After three months of preparations in orbit and about 8 minutes after entering the Martian atmosphere, the spacecraft survived the so-called "seven minutes of terror" or "nine minutes of unknown", in which it is not possible to receive signals from the earth. live due to the natural delay in communications. The rover touched the surface shortly after 7:00 local time (1: 00 in Italy).
The success of the operation was confirmed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the Chinese space agency, according to which the Zhurong rover has sent remote sensing signals to Earth.
There is certainly life on #Mars!
We're the life of the party!
#Zhurong # Tianwen1 #CNSA @CNSA_en pic.twitter.com/cC8pZVmyVt
- China National Space Administration (CNSA) (@CNSA_en) May 15, 2021
The 240-kilogram solar-powered rover has six scientific payloads - between a pair of navigation cameras and another multispectral, a ion detector, a penetrating radar, a magnetometer and a weather station - for the purpose of studying the topography, geology, soil structure, minerals, rock types and atmosphere in the area.
The Tianwen-1 probe allowed China to become the third nation to have achieved such a feat, after Russia and the United States.