Historic! China Lands A Rover On Mars

<p><em>Historic as China lands on mars<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wsj&period;com&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>has gathered that China has successfully landed its rover on Mars&comma; according to state media&comma; becoming the second country in history to have a rover on the red planet&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The rover&comma; Zhurong&comma; named after a god of fire in Chinese mythology&comma; landed Saturday morning at the pre-selected area in Utopia Planitia on Mars&comma; according to the state-run Xinhua news agency&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The six-wheel solar-powered Zhurong rover weighs about 240 kilograms &lpar;529 pounds&rpar; and carries six scientific instruments&period; It will be later deployed from the lander for a three-month mission in search of signs or evidence of ancient life on Mars&&num;8217&semi; surface&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter will relay its signal to the rover during its mission and then conduct a global survey of the planet for one Martian year&period; The probe has spent three months in orbit reconnoitering the landing area before releasing the rover to the surface&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Tianwen-1 was launched by a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang space launch center in Hainan on July 23 last year&comma; and spent seven months en route to Mars before entered its orbit in February&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The spacecraft sent back its first photo of the planet from more than a million kilometers &lpar;621&comma;371 miles&rpar; away&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The probe is &&num;8220&semi;going to orbit&comma; land and release a rover all on the very first try&comma; and coordinate observations with an orbiter&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the scientific team behind Tianwen-1 said before the rover&&num;8217&semi;s landing&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;No planetary missions have ever been implemented in this way&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the team said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Tianwen-1 is one of three international Mars missions that launched last summer&comma; along with <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wsj&period;com&sol;">NASA&&num;8217&semi;s Perseverance<&sol;a> rover&comma; which landed on Mars in February&comma; and the United Arab Emirates&&num;8217&semi; Hope Probe&comma; which entered orbit around Mars&comma; also in February&period; Unlike the US and China missions&comma; the UAE probe is not intended to land on Mars &&num;8212&semi; just study the planet from orbit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All three missions launched around the same time due to an alignment between Earth and Mars on the same side of the sun&comma; making for a more efficient journey to the red planet&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Tianwen-1&comma; whose name means &&num;8220&semi;Quest for Heavenly Truth&comma;&&num;8221&semi; hopes to gather important information about the Martian soil&comma; geological structure&comma; environment and atmosphere&comma; and to search for signs of water&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;China&&num;8217&semi;s ambitious space program triggered headlines last weekend when an out-of-control 40&comma;000-pound rocket plunged into the Indian Ocean &&num;8212&semi; triggering a rebuke from NASA for failing to &&num;8220&semi;meet responsibility standards regarding &lpar;its&rpar; space debris&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Source&colon; Reuters<&sol;p>&NewLine;