China races ahead in space exploration, Tianwen 1 touches down on Mars surface

In a major milestone in its space program, the Chinese spacecraft Tianwen 1 touched down on the Red Planet successfully 07.18 AM today Beijing time (23.18 GMT) in its first attempt. China is only the second country after the U.S. to send a rover to the surface of Mars, though a Mars probe launched by the former Soviet Union landed in December 1971, but communication was lost seconds after landing. The first successful landing ever was made by NASA’s Viking 1 in July 1976 and then by Viking 2 in September that year. The US Mars Rover Perseverance is currently on Mars and was successful  in carrying out the flight of Mars Helicopter Ingenuity last month, the first man made object to achieve a controlled flight on another celestial body.

The landing of Tianwen 1 which is carrying the rover Zhurong is unique in many respect as it is the first time a country would be successful in attempting to orbit, land and release a rover in its maiden mission to Mars. Tianwen-1, or “Questions to Heaven”, after a Chinese poem written two millennia ago, is China’s first independent mission to Mars. The five-tonne spacecraft blasted off from the southern Chinese island of Hainan in July last year, launched by the powerful Long March 5 rocket. After more than six months in transit, Tianwen-1 reached the Red Planet in February where it had been in orbit since. The craft left its parked orbit at about 1700 GMT Friday (0100 Beijing time Saturday). The landing module separated from the orbiter three hours later and entered the Martian atmosphere, the official China Space News said. The Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on a site on a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia, “leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for the first time,” Xinhua said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a message of congratulations to all the people involved in the mission. “You were brave enough for the challenge, pursued excellence and placed our country in the advanced ranks of planetary exploration,” he said. “Your outstanding achievement will forever be etched in the memories of the motherland and the people.” “The Tianwen-1 mission has achieved China’s first landing on another planet, and is a milestone with great significance in China’s development of space and aviation,” according to CCTV. In a commentary published on Saturday, Xinhua said China was “not looking to compete for leadership in space” but was committed to “unveiling the secrets of the universe and contributing to humanity’s peaceful use of space.”

The successful landing also comes as a huge relief for China as it faced widespread criticism for an uncontrolled fall of a portion of Long March – 5 rocket (similar rocket carried Tianwen 1 to Mars orbit) back to earth last week, though it fell in Indian Ocean near Maldives without causing any damage.

China will now wait an undisclosed amount of time, as little as a day or up to perhaps a week, before driving the Zhurong rover down a ramp from the lander and onto the surface. The six-wheeled solar-powered vehicle has a planned lifetime of 90 Martian days and is thought to have a top speed of 200 meters per hour. The rover is equipped with a suite of six instruments and cameras to study the surface. They include a ground-penetrating radar that could look for water and ice up to 100 meters below the surface (NASA’s Perseverance boasts a similar instrument). Zhurong also has a magnetometer, the first ever sent to Mars on a rover.

India, though has not attempted a Mars landing, was successful in its Mangalyaan mission when its orbiter was placed on Mars orbit on 24 September 2014. China will surely pursue more audacious projects in space with the success of Mars landing, it is already building its own Space Station on the lines of ISS and maybe we can expect a manned mission soon where US and other countries have not yet attempted till now.