The images document a successful landing. One, black and white captures a landing platform with a ramp to bring the rover to the surface. The second, color shot shows solar panels and an antenna. According to Chinese scientists, Chu-jung is now making final preparations before leaving the module and beginning to fulfill the tasks of his mission, which include, among other things, collecting data on groundwater and detecting signs of possible life in the past.
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In the coming months, the vehicle should photograph the terrain around the landing site in the Utopia Planitia area to see if the conditions are safe. Utopia Planitia is a plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, probably formed by the impact of a large body. It occupies an area with a diameter of about 3,300 kilometers, which, according to experts, makes it the largest known crater caused not only on the surface of Mars, but also in the solar system.
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China became only the second country to manage to bring an apparatus to the surface of Mars that would then function properly. So far, only the United States has succeeded. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Mars is now using three automatic rovers for research – InSight, Curiosity and Perseverance. In 1971, a module of the Soviet Union landed on the red planet, but soon after contact with the surface it stopped sending data to Earth.
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The Tianjen mission began last July with a launch from Wenchang’s Chinese space center on Hainan Island. After less than seven months of flight, the spacecraft – consisting of a satellite, a landing module and a robotic vehicle – successfully reached a designated orbit around Mars in February.
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The satellite will remain in orbit and will explore the planet from above using, among other things, high-resolution cameras, a spectrometer, a magnetometer and a special radar designed to map ice.
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It will also provide communication with the rover, whose equipment includes, in addition to cameras, instruments for geological survey and climate research, as well as a powerful radar that will look for possible pockets of water below the surface. On Earth, microbial life is found in such pockets.
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