The lander carrying China's first Mars rover has successfully touched down on the red planet early Saturday morning Beijing Time. It is the first time China (land) a probe(无人航天探测器) on a planet other than Earth.
Tianwen-1, (consist) of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on July 23, 2020. It was the first step in China's planetary (explore) of the solar system, with the aim of completing orbiting, landing and roving on the red planet in one mission.
The name Tianwen, meaning Questions to Heaven, comes from a poem (write) by the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC). China's first Mars rover is named Zhurong after god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology, echoes with the Chinese name of the red planet: Huoxing (the planet of fire).
The spacecraft entered the Mars orbit in February a journey of nearly seven months through space, and spent more than two months surveying potential landing (site). In the early hours of Saturday, the spacecraft began to descend from its parking orbit. “The craft's plummet through the Martian atmosphere, lasting about nine minutes, was (extreme) complicated with no ground control, and had to(perform) by the spacecraft autonomously,” said Geng Yan, an official at the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the CNSA.
