Agence France-PresseMay 25, 2021 10:24:28 IST<\/p>\n
China's Mars rover drove from its landing platform and began exploring the surface on Saturday, state-run Xinhua news agency said, making the country only the second nation to land and operate a rover on the Red Planet. The launch last July of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe, which carried the Zhurong rover, marked a major milestone in China's space programme. Tianwen-1 touched down on a vast northern lava plain known as the Utopia Planitia a week ago and beamed back its first photos of the surface a few days later.<\/p>\n
The six-wheeled, solar-powered, 240-kilogramme (530-pound) Zhurong is named after a Chinese mythical fire god. Image credit: CNSA via AP<\/p>\n
The Mars probe and rover are expected to spend around three months taking photos, harvesting geographical data, and collecting and analysing rock samples.<\/p>\n
The six-wheeled, solar-powered, 240-kilogramme (530-pound) Zhurong is named after a Chinese mythical fire god.<\/p>\n
China has now sent astronauts into space, powered probes to the Moon and landed a rover on Mars -- the most prestigious of all prizes in the competition for dominion of space.<\/p>\n
The United States and Russia are the only other countries to have reached Mars, and only the former has operated a rover on the surface.<\/p>\n
Several US, Russian and European attempts to land rovers on Mars have failed in the past, most recently in 2016 with the crash-landing of the Schiaparelli joint Russian-European spacecraft.<\/p>\n
The latest successful arrival came in February, when US space agency NASA landed its rover Perseverance, which has since been exploring the planet.<\/p>\n
The US rover launched a small robotic helicopter on Mars which was the first-ever powered flight on another planet.<\/p>\n
China has come a long way in its race to catch up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts and cosmonauts have decades of experience in space exploration.<\/p>\n
It successfully launched the first module of its new space station last month with hopes of having it crewed by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the Moon.<\/p>\n
Last week a segment of the Chinese Long March 5B rocket disintegrated over the Indian Ocean in an uncontrolled landing back to Earth.<\/p>\n
That drew criticism from the United States and other nations for a breach of etiquette governing the return of space debris to Earth, with officials saying the remnants had the potential to endanger life and property.<\/p>\n
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China's Zhurong rover begins its 90-day exploration of Utopia Planitia on Mars - Firstpost<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Agence France-PresseMay 25, 2021 10:24:28 IST China's Mars rover drove from its landing platform and began exploring the surface on Saturday, state-run Xinhua news agency said, making the country only the second nation to land and operate a rover on the Red Planet. Continue reading