CAST's chief adviser of interplanetary exploration Ye Peijian.China's Tianwen-1 set to attempt Mars rover landing on Friday
The Tianwen-1 spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since February and is finally ready to attempt a touchdown on the red planet.
Jackson Ryan May 12, 2021 11:24 p.m. PT
China may soon become just the third country to safely touch down on the surface of Mars.
On Friday, the China National Space Administration will attempt to land its rover Zhurong on the red planet, experiencing the so-called "seven minutes of terror" endured by Martian exploration robots, according to Chinese space watchers.
The ambitious Tianwen-1 mission to Mars launched in July 2020 and contains three spacecraft: an orbiter, which is now circling Mars, a lander and a rover. This is China's first mission to Mars, and landing on the planet is a difficult task — only around half of the trips to the planet have proven successful, and no agency beside NASA has landed on the surface since 1973.
China has been relatively quiet about when we can expect the entry, descent and landing to begin, but reports suggest it will occur at 4:11 p.m. PT (11:11 p.m. UTC) on May 14. The lander and rover are currently encased within a protective shell, but will detach from the orbiter earlier and begin to head toward the surface.
Related link: China's Tianwen-1 set to attempt Mars rover landing on Friday
