China announced that its Zhurong spacecraft successfully landed on Mars early yesterday.
The descent was carried out with a parachute and a rocket platform.
According to the BBC, the six-wheeled Zhurong robot was targeting Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain in the planet’s northern hemisphere.
The report notes that only the Americans have mastered landing on Mars until now. All other countries that have tried have either crashed or lost contact soon after reaching the surface.
Zhurong, which means God of Fire, was carried to Mars on the Tianwen-1 orbiter, which arrived above the planet in February. The current distance to Mars is 320 million km, which means radio messages take almost 18 minutes to reach Earth.
The BBC said the rover was encased in an aeroshell for the initial phase of the descent. This capsule’s dive to the surface was slowed by pushing up against the Martian air. The heat this generated was managed by a forward-facing shield. At a predetermined time, a parachute opened to reduce the velocity still further.
Finally, the Zhurong robot broke away on a rocket-powered bench for the manoeuvres that took it safely to the ground.
[Getty Images: Xinhua]