Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Robot explorer mission China, Zhurong, successfully landed on Planet Mars on Saturday (15/5/2021) morning. This success is a history for the Bamboo Curtain Country in a space exploration mission.
This is because Zhurong completed a dangerous landing through the Martian atmosphere using a parachute to help navigate for seven minutes over the vast northern larval landmass called Utopia Planitia.
The complicated landing process is called the ‘seven minutes of terror’ because it occurs faster than radio signals can reach Earth from Mars. That means limited communication channels.
“The mission successfully landed in an area previously selected,” wrote China’s National Space Agency (CNSA) in a statement quoted by AFP on Saturday (15/05/2021).
The Zhurong landing made China the first country to carry out orbiting, landing and exploration operations during its first mission to Mars. This was considered an achievement unmatched by two other countries, the United States (US) and Russia, which had previously made landings on Mars.
It is known, the robot is called Zhurong because according to Chinese mythology it means the god of fire. The space robot successfully landed on Mars after the US previously carried out its latest investigation. The two superpowers showed off their technological strength to reach planets other than Earth.
The six-wheeled Zhurong space robot is solar powered and weighs about 240 kilograms. In this mission, China is trying to collect and analyze rock samples from the surface of Mars. The process is expected to take up to three months.
In July last year, China launched the Tianwen-1 Mars spacecraft. It marks an important milestone in China’s space program. The spacecraft entered Mars orbit in February and after days of silence.
Several US, Russian and European attempts to land and explore Mars have failed in the past. The last record came in 2016 with the landings of the joint Russian-European Schiaparelli spacecraft.
The most recent successful arrival came in February, when the US Space Agency, aka NASA, landed the Perseverance rover, which has been exploring the red planet ever since.
China has come a long way in the race to catch up with the US and Russia. As is known, these two countries have human resources in the form of astronauts and cosmonauts with decades of experience in space exploration.
China successfully launched the first module of its new space station last month in hopes of being manned by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the Moon.
Last week, a segment of China’s Long March 5B rocket crashed over the Indian Ocean in an uncontrolled return to Earth.
It has drawn criticism from the US and other countries for violating the ethics governing the return of space debris to Earth. Local officials said the remains of the rocket segment had the potential to endanger life and property.
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