The Tianwen-1 probe in China went into orbit on the planet Mars on Wednesday, after a nearly seven-month journey from Earth, its space agency said, in the country’s first independent mission to the red planet.
The robotic probe launched and ended a 15-minute shooting of its missiles, the China National Space Administration said in a statement, dragging the spacecraft to a speed at which it could be captured by Mars gravity gravity.
In about three months, the Tianwen-1 will attempt to land a capsule carrying a 240-kilogram rover in a seven-minute rapid descent over a large area in the northern hemisphere of Mars known as Utopia Planitia.
If the entrance is successful, the solar-powered rover will explore the Martian surface for 90 days, examining its soil and looking for signs of ancient life, including subsurface water and ice. any using radar that passes through the ground.
Tianwen-1, or “Questions to Heaven”, the name of a Chinese poem written two thousand years ago, is China’s first independent mission to the planet after the launch of a probe assembly with the Russia failed in Earth orbit in 2011.
The probe is one of three arriving in Mars this month. The Hope spacecraft that sent the United Arab Emirates into orbit on the planet succeeded Tuesday. No hope comes ashore but he comes to Mars collecting data on the weather and the atmosphere.
In the most advanced Mars mission in the United States, the 1-ton Stability probe is expected to arrive on Feb. 18. It will immediately attempt to land in a rocky depression with steep cliffs known as a Jezero Crater.