Context
An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft, Tianwen-1, is successfully landed on the surface of Mars which makes China the second space-faring nation after the U.S. to land on the Red Planet.
About the Tianwen-1 Spacecraft
- Tianwen-1 or "Questions to Heaven", is China's first independent mission to Mars.
- Tianwen-1, or "Questions to Heaven", named after a Chinese poem written two millennia ago.
- It is a five-tonne spacecraft that blasted off from the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
- It was launched by the powerful Long March 5 rocket.
- It is the first Chinese spacecraft which landed on Mars.
- It landed on a site on the Southern Utopia Plain.
- The landing process consisted of "nine minutes of terror" as the module decelerates and then slowly descends.
Minutes of terror
- In Mars missions, the 'minutes of terror' is referred to the entry, descent and landing (EDL) phase of the rover.
- It is known as the events take place much quicker than the radio signals can reach Earth from Mars for communication.
- During the minutes of terror the engineers overlooking the event won't be able to guide or direct the Perseverance landing as it takes a while to establish or send any communication from Earth to Mars.
- Hence, the rover will have to perform a landing itself, with no human guidance involved.
- In the case of NASA’s Perseverance, it was ‘Seven minutes of terror’ and in Chinese Tianwen-1 Spacecraft, It was Nine minutes of terror.
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- It has a solar-powered rover, which is named as Zhurong.
- It was named after a mythical Chinese god of fire, Zhuronghas.
- It comprises six scientific instruments including a high-resolution opography camera.
- Study: The rover will survey the landing site before its departure from the platform to conduct inspections.
- The rover will study the planet's surface soil and atmosphere.
- Zhurong will look for signs of ancient life, any sub-surface water and ice.
Long March 5
- It is also known as Chang Zheng 5.
- It is a Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle which is developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.
- It is the first Chinese launch vehicle that is designed to use non-hypergolic liquid propellants exclusively.
- There are two CZ-5 variants: CZ-5 and CZ-5B.
- The maximum payload capacity for for CZ-5B is approximately 25,000 kg to low Earth orbit and for CZ-5, it is approximately 14,000 kg to geostationary transfer orbit.
- It is presently the most powerful member of Long March rocket family.
- It is the world's third most powerful orbital launch vehicle after the Falcon Heavy and Delta IV Heavy.
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